Ten little mammals
by boxopotatoes
Summary: It is the winter of 1893 in victorian Zootopia. Lord Spots, a wealthy cheetah, as invited multiple guests of high profile to celebrate the coming of christmas. But when the guests get stuck in a mansion along with a killer, they must do whatever they can to stay alive. Or, in which Clawhauser organise a themed murder mystery party for the office and everyone is in character.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Everyone! Glad to see you came to check out my christmas story. This is a semi-Au set in victorian Zootopia (London). It's a classic murder mystery, Agatha Christie style, story. The goal was to update everyday and make this into a sort of advent calendar but seeing how I'm releasing this later than I wanted and didn't have the time to pre-write some chapters like I wanted to, I might have to drop that.**

 **Anyway, here is the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Zootopia or any of it's character.**

The date is the 14 of december, 1893 in the year of our lord. The air as grown colder and snow is now slowly falling from the sky to cover the plains of the countryside. Despite the yet still early hour, the outside is cast in shadow, testimony of winter's arrival. Only the dim light of the moon, casted across the land, allows the mammals outside to see. Not that any mammals in their right mind would stay outside long in this weather. The night seems particularly cold for this time of the year and even with their winter coat, most would hurry to the warmth of the indoor as fast as they could.

In the lobby of the luxurious mansion stood a rather large cheetah in a tuxedo. The cat paced back and forth on the ground floor while keeping a watchful eye on his pocket watch. He had been ordered by the master of the house to greet the coming visitors once they would arrive. However, the first guests should have presented themselves five minutes ago but all of them had yet to show up. Panic started to grip the butler. What if none of them came? The whole _soirée_ would be ruined. Months of preparation all for nothing.

It is at that time, in the middle of the feline's worry and doubt, that came the first knock. One clearly coming from that of a powerful hoof hitting the hardwood of the door. With it, the cheetah bolted towards the entrance with as much agility as his body, and the garments covering it, would allow him.

The massive door swung opened to reveal a large cape buffalo in a military outfit. The veteran stood upright in the fashion of a long time soldier, which made him tower over the chubby butler. You needed no more than a quick glimpse to see from his large frame that this mammal has known war.

"General Bogo. Please enter you must be freezing outside without a coat. The others have yet to arrive."

The master of the house, lord Spots, had served up until recently in the army under the command of General Bogo. They fought together in the african colonies and quickly became close to one another. Knowing that the General had a leave for christmas time, Lord Spots could not do otherwise than to invite him.

The massive buffalo did as he was told and stepped inside. He immediately looked around to inspect his host's taste of decor.

The grand entrance was just that, grand. The well polished marble tiled floor reflected the light of the crystal chandelier that hung above the center of the room. It stood proudly above them, shining like a complex structure of diamonds, perched from the two story high roof. Two fancy staircases gave access to a balcony overlooking the entrance that lead to the second floor. On his left, general Bogo could see an open door that gave way to a lavish dining hall. On his right, the living room. The walls were decorated by portraits and other paintings, all a testament of the vast wealth of the lord Spots.

"Champaign?" Asked the butler.

Bogo nodded, not taking his eyes of the display around him. Very soon, he was handed a tall glass filled with the golden liquid.

A set of quick frantic knocks came from the front door, calling the cheetah back to his duty. He opened the door to reveal a pig and a racoon both in business suit, top hat and holding a short walking cane. The racoon proudly wore a mustache, white like the fur from which it grew, as was popular in these times. To make up for his lack of fur, the pig wore a splendid monocle with a golden chain hanging from it and leading to the inside of his suit.

"Gooooooooood day good sir!" Exclaimed the raccoon while rocking on the ball of his paws.

"Good evening would be more appropriate." Corrected his partner with a wave of his cane.

"I am sir Coon..."

"And me sir Porkins…"

"And we are…" They said in unison.

"THE FORREST BROTHERS!"

"THE RUTTER BROTHERS!"

Both mammal looked at each other.

"We had settled on Forrest." said the racoon.

"Of course we didn't! You're the one who settled on it. I never liked it."

"Because Rutter is any better? You want people to make fun of us or what?"

"What do you mean make fun of us?"

"RUTter are you kidding me? You're practically begging for people to make inappropriate Jokes."

"Yeah you're right. With a name like Forrest, we'll never have jokes made at our expense."

"Forrest is a perfectly well fitting last name for both our species. It's our natural habitat."

"Pigs don't have a natural habitat."

"What?"

"Primitive pigs lived wherever they could forage food. While that does include some forest, they also lived in marsh and shrublands…"

"Whatever, we'll talk about this later."

They both turned back to face the waiting and confused butler.

"Hi, we're the Forrest…"

"Rutter."

"...brothers. We received an invitation from lord Spots."

The Forrest/Rutter brothers were a renown pair of inventors in Zootopia. Lord Spots had invited them over in the hope that they would accept to build something for him. Clawhauser did not know of the exact detail of this business proposal, but he knew it involved some of the other guests.

"Yes of course where are my manners?" Said Clawhauser while opening the door wider. "Please, make yourself at home. Can I serve you a glass of champagne?"

They accepted the glass and walked off to meet the other waiting guest.

"Good day…"

"Evening."

"...good sir! I'am…"

Another knock came from the door. This time from a much bigger paw. Clawhauser found out it was one of a female tiger once he opened the door.

He knew the mammal. He had seen her here many times before and every time, she only brought bad things. It surprised him that the lord would even invite her seeing how they had never been in particularly good terms.

"Mrs. Fangmeyer! How nice to see that you came to visit your brother. Surely the lord will be pleased. But tell me, I don't see mister Fangmeyer with you, why would that be if I may inquire?"

She rolled her eyes before answering that something had shown up at work in the capital and that it needed to be taken care of with utmost urgency. She then walked in not bothering to wait for him to invite her.

"Hun! My brother re-decorated."

"Yes, he…"

"I don't like it." She cut him. "Where are the champagnes, I don't have nearly enough alcohol in my body right now."

"Right this way. If you would follow me."

He lead her to the drinks and the rest of the guests. She joined them but preferred to stay out of the conversation and simply watched the raccoon and the pig speak passionately.

A short moment after came another knock. Clawhauser went back to the door once again and opened it another time. What he saw was a wolf adorning fancy clothes which would be accustomed to lordship.

"Good evening Lord Wolford. It is a pleasure to see you took time off your busy schedule to join us in the festivities." For the longest of times, Lord Wolford and Lord Spots were the fiercest of rivals. But over the years they had buried the hatchet and started working together. The wolf had then suddenly taken a hubby in travelling the globe and now considered himself an explorer before anything else. He had seen the jungles of america and those of south asia alike but now he was back home for christmas. The lord had invited him over to try to resume business where they had left it off.

"Why I wouldn't miss this for anything in the world. Traveling the globe may be thrilling but it is good to visit your hometown from time to time."

"Please come in, there are other guests waiting for you."

The wolf took a glass and joined the rest of the assembled guests while Clawhauser made sure everyone was comfortable.

The next guest took a bit more time to arrive. But when he did Clawhauser knew immediately who it was. The powerful thumps could only have come from the biggest of their guests.

"Doctor McHorn, how nice to see you. I thrust you're here for more than just a regular check up."

The rhino rolled his eyes, clearly not pleased to be here.

"Sure whatever." He said disinterested.

He made his way past Clawhauser and directly to the center of the room. As the cheetah tried to follow him, he was stopped by a scream from the outdoors. He looked out to see a camel running his way.

"Miss Lumpy…"

The camel stopped in front of the door.

"Sorry, I'm late. There was a lot of traf…"

Clawhauser looked at her with a frown.

"I mean have you seen the weather? Dear gosh!" She said with a forced accent. "My carriage got stuck in the snow, could you believe it? Maybe I should fire my driver, that horse is useless!"

The butler's face softened and he invited her in. Miss Lumpy had been a childhood friend of the master of the house ever since they were twelve. Clawhauser's father, which had been the butler of the family before him as was his grandfather and great-grandfather, had told him of and playing together as kits. They had lost contact after Lord Spots joined the army but now that he was back, he was eager to reconnect with his old childhood friend.

There were now only two guests missing. A thing that surprised him since one of them always had the habit of arriving anywhere early. Then again, the other was notorious for arriving late and they were probably travelling together. Therefore, Clawhauser decided to wait by the door for them to arrive while keeping an eye on the guest's need.

The night was going rather well if he could say so himself. The guests were exchanging discussions and sipping champagne and all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The sound of the door knocker for small mammals informed the butler of the two small guest's presence. The knock was then followed by muffled voices coming from behind the closed door.

"I told you we would be late! This is your fault."

"Calm down carrots! It's not like this is a big deal."

"Not a big deal?! Have you seen the…"

The female's voice was cut short when Clawhauser opened the door to reveal the fancily dressed fox and bunny arguing with each other. Both of their ears perked up and they faced the cheetah with a sorry smile.

"Hey Claw what's up?" Asked the fox nonchalantly, trying to scoot the fact that they were late under a rug of suaveness.

Before Clawhauser could reprimand him, the bunny elbowed the larger fox.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Mr…?" She said while curtsying.

"Clawhauser and the pleasure is all mine Miss Hopps. Please do come in, you must be freezing outside. Lord Spots will be pleased to meet such a famous writer as yourself."

"Why, you flatter me but I must ask you to stop lest I start turning red."

"I am sure the color would compliment your eyes perfectly."

"Damn, normally I'm the smooth one." Said the fox once he managed to gain his breath back."

Clawhauser turned to him with an unamused and scolding look.

"Yes mister Wilde, you're as smooth as a circus of elephants in a shrew monastery."

Judy giggled at the cheetah's comment.

"Why don't you two get acquainted with the rest of the guests while I go fetch the appetizers."

Nick rolled his eyes but didn't protest further. He followed Judy to the rest of the gathered crowd but before he could decide with whom to get "acquainted" he was stopped by a pig and a raccoon.

"Ah Wilde. We need you to judge something. Which sounds best…"

"the Rutter brothers…"

"...or the Forrest brothers?"

"Both sound as equally stupid. Seriously why don't you just use your real last names?"

"Because we don't have the same."

"And we're supposed to be brothers."

"I hate to break it to you guys but you're a pig and you're a raccoon. One of you was adopted."

"hu-hum!" The cheetah loudly cleared his throat next to them. "If everyone could stay in character please that would be appreciated."

"Okay pause, pause." Said Nick while waving his paws. "Am I the only one here to think this thing is way overblown? I mean seriously why do we have to do this for two weeks straight? two weeks!"

"Because you're all in suspension for two weeks." Came the response from Bogo. "And this is a team building exercises."

"Yeah don't you complain Wilde!" Said McHorn."It's your fault we're here in the first place."

"What! How is it my fault?"

* * *

"Ow ow ow ow ow wait no stop! I'm stuck okay pulling won't do any help."

Nick had never been so ashamed in his life. Even the time Finnick made him wear the elephant costume after he lost a bet palled in comparison of this. He knew something like this would eventually happen one day. He had asked Bogo to get new toilets for so long now but nooooooo, of course he didn't listen. And now here he was, having slipped and fallen into the toilet bowl butt first. If it had ended there it would have been fine but he had to get stuck didn't he.

His instructor at the academy had warned him about the deadly dangers of filthy toilets. He should have listened…

The tubings were big enough for his rear to get lodged in it after he had fallen but too tight to allow him get out. Now he was only praying for a merciful death after McHorn had tried to pull him out by his arms and legs three times.

"You're sure I shouldn't come in and help?" Asked Judy from the other side of the door that lead to the precinct's male toilets.

"No! I'm not presentable!"

Nick did come to the toilets for a reason. Because if this wasn't embarrassing enough, he had to get stuck with his pants down. Thankfully he had managed to haul his boxers back enough to protect his modesty. The main reason he didn't want Judy to see him though was because he knew he would never hear the end of it.

"He doesn't want you to see his tiny…"

"SHUT UP MCHORN!"

Pause…

"And it's not tiny."

"It's minuscule."

"It's fox sized and if you could stop describing my appendage and help me get out of this mess it would be appreciated."

"Okay, maybe if we pull the flush…"

"Nononono don't pull the… BLURGGHRGHHG!"

"What's going on in there!" Judy asked while she pushed the door open despite Nick's clear instruction.

"CARROTS!... Help… McHorn is waterboarding me!"

Judy ran to the toilet stall from which the sound came from only to stop in her track at the sight in front of her. She started to laugh uncontrollably when she saw the damp fox stuck butt first in the toilet.

"It's not funny!"

"Is it funny? Yes, yes it is."

"I didn't even asked a question, you're doing it wrong."

"Wait, just let me take a picture."

"No! Carrots don't you dare!"

Nick wanted to stop her but he was unable to move. She hopped on the toilet seat and angled her phone down at him.

"Say dumb fox!"

Nick tried to reach for the phone but was prevented by his situation. He did managed however to, unwillingly, make the seat shake. Judy lost her balance for a moment and slipped on one of the wet spot on the seat. She fell into the bowl and onto the fox.

She landed in a rather awkward position, her legs straddling his hips that were merely covered by his boxers and her arms going each side of his head to stop her fall. Their muzzle were mere inches apart and she could feel his breath on her face. She froze and felt her ears turn red. They stared at each other like this in silence, not moving away.

"Here, I'll take that photo for you."

Her ears perked up at the sound of a photo being taken. She turned around only to see McHorn standing over the bowl with a phone of his own in his hoof and a large grin spread on his face.

...

Coon, Porkins and Doctor Lumpy were walking down the corridor side by side.

"The results have returned positives. Your victim was poisoned before he was shot. It wouldn't have been enough to kill him but was sufficient to lower his inhibition."

The camel kept talking to the two mammalicide investigators until a sound made them turn their head.

The door that lead to the male's bathroom burst open and out came McHorn, running away with a phone in his hoof. Seconds later a drenched Hopps followed after him.

"YOU'RE DEAD MCHORN YOU HEAR ME? YOU'RE DEAD!"

Before they could even react, another voice came from the bathroom the two mammals had just ran out.

"Wait guys! Don't leave me here! Help! Help!"

"What the hell is going on?" Asked Coon after entering the bathroom himself followed by Porkins and doctor Lumpy.

"Coon! Listen can you help a brother out?"

"With wha… HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The racoon started a laughing fit after he turned the corner of the stall in which Nick was stuck. He was soon followed by the two others. Nick frowned at the three mammals laughing at his expense.

"Harhar, everyone got their share of laughing at the poor fox? Because I'd really like if you could help me get out of this."

"This is gold. I can't believe I forgot my phone at the lab."

"I'll sign you an autograph if you get me out."

"Okay, okay. Lumpy you go pull on his arms, Porkins and I will get the legs."

"It's useless. McHorn already tried pulling me out after he was fed up with shaming me."

"What if we pull the flush?"

Nick's eyes widened.

"NO PLEASE NO, NOT THE… BLURGHGULRGHLGH."

...

"YOU CAN'T RUN FOREVER McHorn! I RAN FROM HOME TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY! I CAN KEEP GOING FOREVER!"

"Why does Hopps want to kill McHorn?" Fangmeyer asked the cheetah sitting behind the reception desk.

"I don't know. I don't think he called her cute."

From the corner of her eyes, Fangmeyer saw a wolf approaching rapidly.

"Hey Wolford! Do you know what McHorn did this time?"

The wolf ran passed them without stopping.

"Sorry I really don't have the time!"

He continued his way towards the male's bathroom.

...

"I'm so sorry!" Said Porkins. "Are you alright I really didn't think this through."

"I think I saw my life flashing by!"

"Okay we need to think of something. We can't pull and we can't flush..."

They were interrupted by the sound of someone pushing the door in a hurry. They turned around to see Wolford looking at them confused. He opened his mouth and then shut it again.

"Hold on I have something to do first then I'm back to you." He said before entering one of the stalls and closing the door.

A vicious sound came from the booth followed by that of a happy grunt of release and a flush. Wolford the came out of the stall and looked back at them.

"Okay, what's going on?"

"Wilde got stuck in the toilets and he can't get out."

"Have you tried flushing?"

"NO! NOBODY IS FLUSHING ME AGAIN OKAY!"

Coon began to sniff the air and quickly put his paws over his nose.

"Oh God! What is that smell!?"

"Sorry." Shily said Wolford. "Bad digestion…"

"What did you eat?!"

"You know joe's dinner at the end of the street? They had a knew plate there, it's called 'tour of the world'. It has indian, vietnamese, mexican…"

Doctor Lumpy made a gaging noise.

"I think I'm going to puke!"

She stumbled out of the bathroom clutching her nose. She was then followed by Coon and Porkins, leaving the poor fox in the room with the wolf.

"NO PLEASE GET ME OUT! NO DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! UGH I'M GOING TO DIE!"

...

The next time Fangmeyer saw McHorn, he was limping and clutching his arm. Hopps was slowly strolling behind him with a large smile spread across her face and a far too big phone in her paws. She then saw them enter the same bathroom Wolford had just ran into.

"Alright! That's it! I have to know what the hell is going on."

Fangmeyer leisurely made her way to the male's bathroom.

When Judy entered the room she immediately covered her nose with her paws.

"Sweet cheese and crackers! What is that smell!"

"I'm sorry okay! I couldn't help it!" Came the voice of Wolford.

"Carrots help! Either get me out or kill me now but don't make me suffer through this!"

The door opened again and Fangmeyer walked in.

"Okay so what's up this time?"

"Nick is stuck in a toilet." They said in unison.

"Hurgh! Did he have to make it stink so much?"

"Blame Wolford for that not me!"

"Have you tried to flush?" She asked.

"NO FLUSHING!"

The door opened again and this time Coon, Porkins and doctor Lumpy entered, all wearing cleaning masks.

"We're back from the cleaning closet with a few tools." Exclaimed porkins while brandishing a mop.

"How is a mop going to help me get out?"

"We're going to use it as a lever… If you could just spread your legs a little…"

"What!"

"Just do as you're told."

With a gulp Nick spread his legs just enough for Coon to slide the metals stick under him.

"Okay, in 3, 2, 1…"

Coon and porkins pulled on the makeshift lever as hard as they could, making Nick let out a high pitched yelp.

"Help would be appreciated…"

Judy, wolford and and doctor Lumpy joined them in pulling on the stick.

"McHorn, you're going to join?"

"I can't, Hopps broke my arm."

"Believe me, if you had a broken arm I'd know." Said doctor Lumpy.

"You're not the one who can feel it."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you finally got your doctor's license. Get in here and help us."

With a grunt, McHorn joined them.

"Fangmeyer?"

"No thanks. I think I'm just going to stay back and watch."

No more than five seconds later a popping sound was heard followed by a pained yelp. Acting as a catapult, the mop's stick propelled Nick through the air until he was stopped by a wall meeting his face. With the lack of resistance, the whole group fell on their back.

"I'll never be able to have kits." Whined Nick as he clutched the area against which the mop handle had been pressing.

"Well I think we're done here…"

As soon as Judy finished her sentence, a spray of water came out like a geyser, out of the toilet in which Nick had been stuck.

Without wasting a second, Coon and Porkins stucked the mop into the toilet to stop the overflow.

"Crisis aborted." sighed the pig once the spray had stopped.

Just then all the other toilets erupted, spraying water everywhere.

"Well that'll teach me to speak too soon."

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!"

Bogo looked at his mortified officers that looked back at him. Wilde was on the ground with his pants down, clutching his groin. Coon and porkins were holding down a mop into a toilet while all the others were erupting. McHorn looked like he had been beaten up by a street gang and Fangmeyer was leaning all too casually against the wall. On top of that, the bathroom smelled terrible.

"All of you into the bullpen… NOW!" Bogo hissed.

Nick slowly and weakly raised his paw without getting up from the ground.

"What is it Wilde?" Bogo asked trying to control his temper.

"I still really need to go to the bathroom…"

* * *

"How is it my fault?" Said Nick. "They're the ones who destroyed the toilets." He said while pointing at the duo of investigators.

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't see you complain when we got you out."

"Actually I did complain a lot about you castrating me. And still why this? This is not like you at all chief."

"Oh this wasn't my first idea of a punishment. I originally thought about something for all of you. From a month of parking duty…" He looked at Judy. "... to disinfecting the toilets." He looked at Wolford. "But then Clawhauser came to me with this idea for an office christmas party and I thought it was a better idea."

"But why?"

"Because if I was lucky, I'd get the chance of role-playing murdering you all." He said coldly.

The truth was that in his youth Bogo had been a huge dungeon and dragons fan. It was a secret he would never share with his officers but he did miss the old time when he could dress up and play with his friends. When Clawhauser had come up with the idea, Bogo saw a chance to play once again and have an excuse for it. Nobody would peg him for a D&D nerd and he rather liked it stayed that way.

"Although, since we're breaking characters…" He turned to Clawhauser. "The ZPD is not paying for all of this is it?" He said while motioning to the luxurious mansion that usually hosted weddings and fancy soirées in Tundra Town.

"No, don't worry about that Lewis knows the owner. Lewis who is upstairs right now waiting to play his role while he has a lot of work to do, so if everyone could just go back into character. I spent A LOT of time preparing this so please… just play along."

"There were a couple of mutured apologies before everyone went back to what they were doing before the interruption.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I will fetch Lord Spots upstairs. You may move to the living room he shall be down shortly."

The guests did as they were told and moved to the living-room. If the entrance hall was grand, this room was way more cosy and inviting. A fire burnt in the foyer, casting a dancing light over velvety carpet. Next to a massif piano stood proudly a fully decorated christmas tree. Under it laid a multitude of colorfully wrapped presents whose shiny ribbons reflected the light of the fire. The room was small enough to feel cozy but big enough to accommodate for all of them. Three large windows gave view of the falling snow and large covered field of the countryside.

The room was beautiful.

The mansion was in a remote enough place of Tundra Town to make Judy think of Bunny Borrow. Whilst she could still see the light of the city in the horizon, the rolling plains that stood in between remembered her of those back home during winter. Sometimes, she wished her family could see the world from her perspective and sometimes she just wished to spend a little time with them.

* * *

"I'm sorry mom but the office really needs me."

Judy was talking with her parents on the phone. She hated how sad they looked but it's not as if she had a choice.

"Surely you can spare some days to come home for christmas sweety. You haven't taken any vacations yet, I'm sure your boss will understand."

"It's not that mom. Christmas time is the prime time for break-in's."

It was a lie. After the bathroom incident, her and all the others had been suspended for two weeks. Bogo had turned Clawhauser's christmas party into a "team building exercises". Why he did that, she had no idea and found it very weird for Bogo to go easy on them like that. But that was besides the point. What mattered was that she had been suspended and she didn't feel like informing her parents of that. She might have been an adult but she knew they would scold her like a kit that got detention at school. And while she would have liked to spend a little private time with her 275 siblings for christmas, her mother had told her that it would be the whole extended family this year. Her own family had the time to accept her career choice but she knew that countless of her in laws didn't and she really could pass up on their judgemental comments at the dining table.

"Will you be there at least for new year's eve bun-bun?"

"Maybe, I don't know mom." She said with a shrug. "Listen, I need to go now I'll call you later."

Judy pressed the "end call" button before her mother could protest. She let her head fall back with a heavy sigh before she turned it to face the grinning fox on the couch next to her.

"What?"

"Bun-bun?"

"Can it and just resume the movie."

Nick was over at her place since it was movie night. Every friday after work they would pick a cheesy b movie and watch it at his place since her's probably wasn't even big enough to hold them both.

"Before we do that, I think we should open these."

Nick motioned to the two envelopes with their name on it. They had received their role for the christmas party on their desk that morning and still hadn't checked it.

"We're not supposed to show others our cards."

"We don't need to show it, we're just going to tell the stuff that people usually know about each other."

Judy looked at him with an annoyed scowl.

"Come on bun-bun, it'll be fun."

"Don't call me bun-bun."

"I will if you don't put a smile on and open that envelope."

She rolled her eyes but a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Without looking at him she took the letter with her name from his paw while she felt his smile grew and her blush deepened.

While she read her card silently Nick read his out loud.

"Dear Mister Wilde, blablabla, you've been invited by lord Spots, blablabla. Okay here it is: 'you were a rich and greedy buisnessmammal who turned to a generous philanthropist after you almost died in a near drowning accident.' Wow I kind of feel attacked here. What does yours say?"

"Hun? Oh, I'm a famous writer and activist. My principal causes are female equality, logic, small mammals inclusion, logic, and…"

"And what?"

"em… Interspecies relationships rights."

"logic." She added in her head which made her blush only deepened.

"Wow, you're a pretty progressive for someone living in the victorian era."

…

Wolford opened the letter he'd just received.

 _You are an old rival of lord Spots that decided to bury the hatchet in favor of exploring the world and it's delicacies, mainly india, vietnam, mexique…_

"Oh of course they had to rub it in didn't they?"

…

McHorn and Fangmeyer sat at the same table in the break room.

"I tell you, my arm still hurts."

"Hmm."

"She must have broken something."

"Yeah right."

"You're not listening to me are you?"

"Hun? Oh sorry I just read my role. I'm supposed to be, and I quote, 'the cold and disinterested sister of lord Spots.' What does that even mean?"

"Maybe that you are cold and disinterested."

"Anyone ever told you you're really smart? Anyway, what does yours say?"

"That I'm a doctor."

"Really? Oh well. So how's your arm doing?"

…

"So basically I'm just a woman? A woman without a job just waiting to be married off?"

Doctor Lumpy looked at her card with disbelief and offense. She supposed it was historical accuracy but still…

"Are you f-"

…

"You two have a envelopes for you."

"Thanks Tim. Put it on our desks please." Said Porkins.

"Hey I think it's our roles for the christmas party."

"O-o-oh let me see let me see."

They both opened their letters at the same time and started reading from it.

"You are an inventor and so is your brother." They said in unison. "You have always been creative ever since you were a kit, always playing around with levers and the sort…"

...

A knock rang on the door of chief Bogo's office.

"Come in."

Clawhauser peeked his head in.

"I just want to tell you I have your role card for the christmas party."

"Put it in the corner of my desk. I'll get to it when I have the time."

Clawhauser did just so and then retreated from the office. As soon as the door was closed, Bogo dropped what he was doing and immediately teared the envelope open.

"You are general Bogo, renowned military leader and previous commander of lord Spots… Hmmm… I wonder if general Bogo would have a beard? I could use the one from my level 12 mage costume…"

* * *

A high pitched shout took everyone out of their revery or conversation. They all turned their heads to the staircase that lead to the second floor from which the shout originated. It took a moment for anyone to react but after a few second had past, they all rushed upstairs as one curious and concerned crowd.

What they found upstairs was the door of the master bedroom opened and two cheetahs inside. One, dressed as a butler, stood above the other with his paw to his mouth. The other, the well dressed master of the house, laid motionless on the floor with foam coming off his mouth and eyes rolled back.

General Bogo was the first one to speak.

"What happened?"

"He… He… He drank from the champaign and then just… started writhing on the floor and the foam… oh God is he dead?"

Miss Lumpy made a move to reach the the lord but was stopped by the strong hoof of doctor McHorn.

"Let the professional handle this dear." He said, which earned him an angry glare from the camel.

He bent to his knee and gently placed his hoof on the side of the lord's neck.

"I'm afraid that lord Spots has passed."

"But how?" Judy asked.

"Yes doctor..." Added miss Lumpy. "Surely you can tell us the cause of death…"

"Hum.. Yes of course… He hu… He died of…"

"Maybe the fact that the last thing he did before he died was drink from his glass and the foam that formed around his mouth are indicators…" Said Porkins.

"That is a wonderful observation I say! Well done brother."

"Thank you brother I say, I say!"

Nick cringed at the hamfisted (no pun intended) british accent.

"All right all right I get it. He was poisoned."

"Poisoned! But by whom?" Said Wolford, speaking for the first time.

Silence fell in the room, a silence that was interrupted by the sound of thunder.

Nick turned to the butler who was holding a remote.

"Seriously Clawhauser, thunder noise?..."

 **Before anything else I just want to say that while the plumbing mechanics in this chapter are complete nonsense in real life, this animated-cartoony world so they follow the laws of physics of that universe.**

 **with that out of the way I want to say that this chapter will be significantly longer than all of the other ones. If I even wish to make the updates daily, I have to keep the chapters short.**

 **If you liked this story so far or if you have something that I could improve, let me know with a comment. Otherwise you can like/Kudo and follow.**

 **Until (hopefully) tomorrow… Huza!**


	2. Chapter 2

**23:45 is still technically the same day so I did hold up to that daily update goal.**

 **Many of you on noticed that there were some names missing. After looking into it, I realised that the sited doesn't accept dots in the middle of names and would just delete them if it saw any. For example, or would get removed and caus quite a bit of confusion. I have now gone and fixed that problem so if you didn't know what the shit happened in the last chapter you can go back and re-read it.**

 **And now for today's chapter…**

After last night's events, all the guests had been sent away to their respective bedrooms. There was a blizzard outside which made it impossible to contact the authorities due to the telephone line being brought down or even to go out and seek them. So instead they had chosen to isolate themselves in their bedroom and wait until the morning came and the storm died down.

And whilst the morning did come, the end of the storm never did.

Judy woke up with an early start like she usually did. The first rays of the sun peeked through the window of her assign bedroom. She walked to the closet to choose what to wear. It seemed that the butler had already furnished the closet with a selection of victorian styled dresses.

She opted for a red silk dress with a corset that she found complimented her very well. Satisfied with her clothing choice, she got out of her room and made her way for the dining hall.

Judy was about to go down the stairs leading to the main entrance when she heard the sound of two mammals whispering. Was somebody plotting? She kept a low profile and slowly inched her way towards the sound. She recognised the sound of the butler's voice and that of a mammal she didn't know yet. She hid behind the railings of the balcony that overlooked the entrance hall and looked down at the two mammals speaking in front of the door.

It was Clawhauser and… Lord Spots?

"Alright sweetie you have fun now. I'll pick you up in two weeks."

Lord Spots leaned in and kissed Clawhauser on the mouth.

"Love you."

"Love you too."

Judy's ears perked and reddened at the sight of the exchange. After the presumably dead cheetah left she decided to make her way down the stairs and act as if she had seen nothing. Apparently it didn't work because as soon as Clawhauser saw her expression, a large grin formed on his face.

"Good morning miss Hopps. Saw anything particular this morning?"

Judy's blush deepened as she tried to come up with an excuse.

"I, uhm… I… I'm sorry but I have to ask. You and…"

"Lewis, my boyfriend? Yes we're a thing."

"Oh… uh, great!"

"You didn't know I was gay did you?"

"Whaaaaaaaaaat? No of course I knew…"

"It's alright Judy I'm not going to hold it against you that you don't know everything about me."

"It's just that… Gazelle, you know…"

"I can worship her, like she deserves to be, and still be attracted to the same sex you know."

"I know, I know, it's just that I had assumed… well…"

"It's alright miss Hopps. Why don't you go to the dining area. The others shall be down for breakfast in no time now."

Judy took the cue to go back into character.

"Very well mister Clawhauser."

As he said, the other guests started to come down and slowly filled the dining table until only one was missing. the one she wanted to see the most.

"It seems that mister Wilde as yet to get out of bed. If you'll excuse me while I'll go fetch him, we'll then be able to begin breakfast."

Clawhauser excused himself from the gathered guests and went up the stairs. He walked to the front of the last closed door and raised his paw. He then brought it down in a gentle knock onto the door.

He heard a grunt and a whine.

"Five more minutes." Said a tired voice from the inside.

"Mister Wilde, if you would please gift us with your presence downstairs. The other guests are waiting for you for breakfast."

"mmh go away mom. I wanna sleep."

Clawhauser rolled his eyes and tried again.

"Miss Hopps said she had a surprise for you…"

He heard shuffling and then the door slightly opened to reveal the face of the sleepy fox. Clawhauser could see that he was still only in his sleeping boxers and his eyelids were still weighted down by sleep.

"I'm sorry what did you say?"

"Oh I simply wanted to inform you that the others were downstairs waiting for you to start breakfast. Seeing how you are up and awake, I'll inform the others that you will be down shortly.

Nick grunted and closed the door to get dressed. Clawhauser chuckled and walked away. Nick was so easy to play at times.

When Nick finally made it down stairs, He was greeted by a table full of talking guests. Since they were all of different size, they all had an assigned place with appropriately sized furniture and utensils. As he looked for his, he realised it was right next to Judy…

Judy…

He saw her talking with Fangmeyer, not noticing his arrival or him staring at her.

"At least you have a real job miss Hopps. Miss Lumpy and myself are merely housewife or house wife to be…"

Their conversation was cut short when all heads turned to Nick who had just arrived and they followed to see what everyone was looking at.

She was in a fabulous dress that made her curve stand out. He looked at her mouth agape, not believing how good she looked.

"If mister Wilde could please pick his jaw off the floor and sit down so we may proceed…"

The rest of the crowd chuckled at the butler's comment while Nick put his figurative mask back on. He gave a tentative high to Judy as he seated down. A high she returned shyly before looking away and blushing.

At that time, Clawhauser came back from the kitchen with a cart full of plates. He distributed one to each, proportioned once again according to their size, and sat himself at the table.

"Now as you all well know, what happened last night is a tragic event that will not go unpunished. However due to the ongoing storm outside and our incapability to contact the authorities, it falls on us to determine who is responsible for this act and to make sure they do not act again."

"If that is our goal…" spoke Coon "we must then look into how the victim was killed first. We know that lord Spots was poisoned but we are aware of little more than that."

"Maybe doctor McHorn could enlighten us more on the exact nature of the poison. Surely with symptoms as specific as spasm and foam formation you must be able to identify the toxin…" Miss Lumpy looked expectantly at McHorn, her eyes filled with a sort of smug that could rival that of Nick's.

"hum… yes well… you know there are a lot of toxins out there and… hum…"

"The exact nature of the toxin is not important in this case." Said general Bogo. "What we need to focus on right now is to discover how it was administered. You say that the last thing lord Spots did before he died was to drink from his champagne glass?"

"Yes indeed."

"And where did you get that glass? Was it ever out of your sight?"

"It was with the rest of the glasses you all had last night. There never was any particular glass meant for the lord, I simply brought the last one that was left."

"So the poisoned could have been meant for someone else?" Asked Judy.

"Unlikely…" answered Porkins. "If one of the glasses was poisoned before anyone took a glass, the chance of it being the last glass taken would be in the order of one out of ten."

All the mammals at the table looked at the pig as if wings had just grown on his back.

"What? Come on people it's basic math!"

"Okay then…" resumed Bogo. "So the poisoned was placed after we had all gotten our drinks."

"It would make sense. I did leave the single glass unattended while I went to fetch appetizers."

"Does anyone remember seeing someone approach the glass at that moment then?"

All slowly shook their head from left to right.

"All I remember was hearing a fox whining." Commented McHorn.

"Maybe then the poisoned wasn't introduced at that moment." Said MrsFangmeyer.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I meant that for all we know mister Clawhauser might have slipped it in while he took the glass upstairs."

"How dare you say such a thing!"

"Understand that I'm not accusing you mister Clawhauser. I am simply saying that we shouldn't discard the possibility. It would be a shame to go after each other only to realise in the end that the butler did it."

"And what reason would I possibly have to kill lord Spots?"

"Yes that's it!" interrupted Coon. "The next step after figuring out who had the occasion to kill the victim, in this case literally everyone, then we must find who had a motive."

"Why mister Coon you know an awful lot about murders… Care to explain?" Asked Nick.

"My brother and I read a lot of the short stories of sir Arfur Conan Doyle."

Another round of confused glares.

"No it's legit." Said Porkins. "His first Sheerlock and Woolson short story was published in 1887. The next one would be next year in 1894: the memoirs of Sheerlock."

The glares only intensified.

"Oh my God people read a book will you? You might learn a thing."

"Anyways..." said Fangmeyer to try to move away from the conversation. "I am sure you must have gotten sick of being ordered around all day by my brother sometimes. Am I right mister Clawhauser?…"

"Not at all. In fact I rather liked your brother. It is peculiar on the other paw however that I have not seen you sheer one tear for his death…"

"Are you accusing me mister Clawhauser?"

"Of course not. I am simply saying that we shouldn't discard the possibility…"

If you were paying enough attention, you could almost see the sparks flying in between the glare they exchanged each other.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Said Judy. "There is a more people that could have wanted lord Spots' death other than you two. However, without further evidences we can't safely identify the murderer. I suggest that we wait and see if the storm finally blows out. In the meantime we simply need to be careful and keep an eye out."

"I agree with miss Hopps." Said Wolford. "It is the only rational thing to do right now."

"Well, if we have nothing more to discuss… You'll excuse me but I must do the dishes."

With that Clawhauser sat up and began collecting everyone's dirty plates.

"Wait mister Clawhauser. Would you need someone to help you?" Judy asked.

"Oh it's quite alright dear. This mansion might be hold but it is well equipped for washing dishes."

Clawhauser the mouthed the word: "washing machines".

As the table broke out into multiple conversation, Nick turned to face Judy.

"I'm sorry miss, I'm afraid we didn't have the time to properly present ourselves with the events of last night. You are miss Hopps I believe?" Nick stretched a paw out for her.

"Yes and you must be be mister Wilde."

Judy grabbed Nick's paw. She expected a pawshake bot for him to lift it up and bring it to his muzzle.

"Please call me Nick." He said while pressing a gentle kiss on the top of it.

Judy could feel her ears stand erect and her cheeks flush red as he did do. Damn Nick, always enjoying putting her in uncomfortable situation or making her blush. She could tell he was enjoying this greatly from the large grin that stretched his muzzle.

"Only if you call me Judy." She replied trying to keep her reaction in check.

"Very well Judy. I must tell you your dress fits you perfectly. It is very beautiful on you indeed."

"Thank you. But to be honest, I must give all the credits to the host and his butler. They're the one who furnished the closets…"

Nick looked over Judy's shoulder to see Clawhauser mouthing the words: "You can thank me later." and then winking at him.

It is that day that Nick learned that Clawhauser was way more sneaky than what he looked like…

* * *

Nick was laying in bed staring at the ceiling. After breakfast, the day had gone rather smoothly apart from the fact that everyone was keeping an eye out on the other, expecting them to pull out a knife or something. But that's not what kept him awake.

Nick usually prided himself over being able to read mammals' reaction but has hard as he tried he was never sure what to make of Judy's. He had seen her blush, heard her giggles every time he would flirt with her but it still didn't know if it was because he was having an effect on her or if she was just embarrassed easily. It's not the first time these questions had kept him awake at night so he knew by now that he wouldn't be able to get anymore sleep until he had got his mind off the problem.

Nick stood up from his bed and decided to go get a glass of water from the kitchen. He walked down the stairs in the darkness, helped by his natural night vision, and made his way to the kitchen.

Only he was stopped by a scream.

It came from the living room, on the other side of the entrance hall. Entrance hall which he quickly crossed in order to see what was going on. When he arrived he saw miss Fangmeyer collapsed against the wall, clutching her side and with a knife on the floor.

He moved closer to see if she was still alive. As he feared, she was not. He grabbed the knife to examine it and at that moment the lights of the room turned on and blinded him.

After he blinked a few times he could see the silhouette of Wolford standing in the doorway looking at him.

"Wilde…"

Nick looked down at his paw that held the knife and then back at the wolf.

"This is not what it looks like."

The rest of the guests arrived and stood at the edge of the room looking in.

"What happened?" Asked miss Lumpy.

"I think I just caught Wilde red pawed…"

 **Here you go my pretties. I'll admit that this chapter was not nearly as good as the first one but that's the best I could do in such a short time. Next chapter should be better for those who likes the mystery though. I'm really not sure if I'll be able to keep up with the "one chapter a day" thing, especially during the weekends. I'll do my best but I can't promise you anything.**

 **Otherwise, feel free to let me know what you think of the story so far by letting a comment below. Seriously you can't believe how comments boost the esteem of a writer.**

 **Ps: Gay Clawhauser is so precious.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'll be brief. New chapter, mystery, blabla, enjoy…**

"This is not what you think it is, I can explain…"

The whole group was now staring at Nick.

"Oh I am sure this was just a coincidence that you are perched above a dead body with a knife in your paw." Lord Wolford's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"I swear! I wanted to get a glass of water from the kitchen but then I heard the scream. So I ran over here to see what was going on but when I arrived she was already dead."

"Convenient."

Nick looked at the mammals around him. Most glared at him with a sort of spite, already sure they had found who the killer was. Most but not Judy. she looked confused and hurt.

"Mister Clawhauser?" Asked general Bogo. "I saw that the bedrooms' doors have a keyhole. Is there a lock?"

"Yes sir. It's an old lock that can only be triggered by a key though. There is no way to lock or unlock ,even from the inside, without it."

"I was counting on it… Mister Clawhauser if you could please lock mister Wilde in his bedroom for the night we will review the evidences in the morning. Right now I am too tired for this."

He nodded and then turned to Nick.

"Mister Wilde if you would please follow me."

Nick was escorted back to his room by the butler with lord Wolford and doctor McHorn.

"Alright, now everyone go back to their bedroom we'll deal with this in the morning."

Bogo left leaving only the Forrest/Rutter brothers, Judy and miss Lumpy on the scene.

"Does any of you have some makeup powder?" Asked Coon to the mammals left.

"Yes why?" said miss Lumpy while handing over her pocket makeup kit.

"This is one of those tricks we learned from those short stories we told you about this morning."

They got out of the living room and Coon closed the door behind them. He then applied a thin layer of powder on the door handle.

"If anyone tries to open the door, they'll leave a mark. This way we can know for sure that nobody tempered with the crime scene while we were sleeping."

Once that was done they all left and went to their bedroom. The next day promised to be a good one.

* * *

Nick made an effort to dress impeccably this morning. He usually dressed rather casually, putting comfort before look but today he needed to be at his best if he wanted to convince the others that he was innocent. He chose a white shirt and a sleeveless black suit that fitted on him tightly. He even took the time to put a bowtie on.

After he was finished, he sat on his bed and waited for the others to unlock his door. He didn't need to wait for long since he heard the click of the lock merely thirty seconds after he had sat down. He turned his head to the side and watched the crowd looking at him.

"Come on and get up." Said general Bogo in a no nonsense tone.

They walked down to the door that lead to the living room and stopped in front of it. Coon kneeled and looked at the handle closely.

"We're good, nobody tempered with it."

He then turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"So what is your version of the story Wilde?" Asked Bogo.

"As I said, I went down the stairs and into the kitchen to get a glass of water. I was just in the other room when I heard the scream, that's why I was there before anyone else. But when I arrived she was already dead."

"And you didn't see anyone else? Not even a shadow or a silhouette?"

"No."

"That's impossible." interjected Wolford. "This is the only door that leads into the room. If you were so close you would have seen who did this."

"There was nobody I swear."

"Nobody but you… So what, a ghost killed her?"

"I know how this looks okay but I swear I didn't do it."

"You are going to have to find a better excuse than that."

"Okay okay… let me think…"

Nick walked around trying to come up with a way to prove his innocence.

"The knife was too big for a fox!" He exclaimed while snapping his digits.

"I doubt that the murderer would be stupid enough to use a knife only he could wield."

"Oh yeah good point."

"Why don't you explain exactly what happened after you heard the cream. Don't leave out any details." Said Judy.

He looked at her. Her eyes were full of hope and he could tell she must have wanted to prove his innocence as much as he did.

"So I was still in the dining area on my way to the kitchen when I heard the scream. I immediately ran for the living room across the entrance hall to find out what was going on. When I arrived it was dark but it didn't bother me because of my night vision..."

"Hold on, it was dark?" She said.

"Hum… yeah why?"

"Why would it be dark?"

"Probably because the murderer didn't want to be seen." Said Wolford.

"Yes that makes sense but why didn't Mrs Fangmeyer turn on the light when she entered the room? Why did she come to the living room in the first place?"

They all looked to where they had found the corpse. Obviously it wasn't there anymore, they had taken her body to her room (and Fangmeyer wasn't going to lay there all night playing dead).

"Hold on." Said Clawhauser when his eyes fixed on the slightly tilted painting on the wall.

He approached it and took the painting away. It revelled a safe that was ajar. He looked inside it and gasped.

"S-Someone took all the money!"

"Was it Fangmeyer?" asked Nick.

"It would explain why she came here and why she didn't turn on the lights." Said Judy. "She wanted to steal from her deceased brother. The killer must have waited for her to open the safe and the killed her."

"She's also the only one who could have known the combination being the lord's sister." Added Clawhauser.

"But she didn't have the money on her." Said Porkins.

"And neither did Wilde so it can't be him."

"Thank you general."

"Wait there's something more!" said the butler while reaching into the safe.

He took out a rectangular piece of paper and read it out loud.

"Look under the tree..."

Everyone slowly turned to the decorated christmas tree and to the colorful presents under it. Nobody moved as if reacting would trigger an explosion. Finally, miss Lumpy was the first one to approach the tree and bend over to look under it.

After some time looking at presents, she took one out and held it with shaking paws.

"To: everyone, From: the killer."

She placed the present onto a coffee table in the middle of the room and backed away.

"Should we open it?" Asked doctor McHorn.

"Mister Wilde should do it." Said Lord Wolford.

"Why me?"

"Because you are the most likely to be the killer as far as we know."

"He can't have done it." Said Porkins. "He wouldn't have had the time to set this whole thing up before we arrived."

"But neither would have the killer before he did." Wolford responded.

"Then he or she must have placed it there after we found Fangmeyer."

"That's impossible." Said Coon. "The door knob was untouched and it's the only way in."

"What about the windows?" Asked Nick.

"They can only be opened from the inside, not the outside." said Clawhauser.

"This is a mess."

"Yes and we still have to decide what we're going to do with this." Said general Bogo while pointing to the waiting present.

"I'll do it. I'll open it."

All turned to Judy.

"Miss Hopps no…"

"Judy…"

"It's alright, it's alright. You might want to stand back in case it is something dangerous though."

Everyone took her advice at heart and too a few steps back.

Judy slowly reached for the present and started undoing the ribon. She then slowly peeled the wrapping off to reveal a cardboard box.

"Here goes nothing…"

She gently lifted the lid at an agonizing paste and peeked inside the box.

"Oh no this isn't good…"

"What is it?"

Inside the box was a fully loaded revolver…

* * *

Nick, Judy and miss lumpy sat on the couch. It had been decided that until they knew what to do with the weapon, three person should keep watch on it at all time. They were now the third group of the day to watch the gun. As the sun started to set, they needed to decide what to do with the weapon otherwise some would have to watch it at night.

"What if we get rid of it?" Asked Nick

"Then we have to face the killer without a weapon."

"But the killer doesn't have a gun either and we have the numerical advantages."

"Fairpoint..." Said miss Lumpy. "But how do you want to get rid of the weapon exactly? You can't just throw it in the trash and whatever you decide to do with it you have to be sure that the killer can't get access to it."

"Oh yeah that's a bummer… Why do you think the killer did this?"

"Maybe because he want's to play with us…" Said Judy. "Or maybe it's to get us tired after watching over a box so we won't be able to notice the killer's mistake."

Silence…

"Okay what about this… We take the bullets out and give one each to someone. That leaves three persons without bullets. We give one of them the empty gun and TADA! The gun becomes unusable unless at least two persons agree to use it."

"Good idea but you put the person holding the gun in danger. It's not like the killer hadn't shown us that he was capable of killing without a gun."

They kept staring at the closed box that held the revolver. Having the box closed meant that if the killer tried to seize it it would take more time, allowing for the two other present mammals to over-power him or her.

"Okay… what if…"

POW!

All three turned their heads to where the sound of gunfire had come from. Without hesitation the bolted up and ran for the kitchen. They arrived at the same time as Coon and Wolford.

"PORKINS NOOOOOOO!" Screamed the racoon.

 **I can't wait to kill off more people so the group conversations become less of a cluster fuck.**

 **If you are having trouble making sense of what happened, it's normal. After all the clues are meant to be confusing but I'll tell you this, you have enough information to figure out how the killer managed to kill Fangmeyer undetected.**

 **Next chapter will be waiting for you with even more mystery and… other stuff maybe I don't know. But until then, leave a comment they are very, VERY appreciated. Of course favorites/kudos and follows also help, they usually help the story getting more known so do that too.**

 **Until next time...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here is today's update my pretties. I think that y'all deserve a bit of fluff so here's an extra sweet chapter...**

"PORKINS NOOOOOOO!"

Coon kneeled in front of his dead brother while others started arriving at the scene themselves.

"What happened?" Asked Bogo.

"YOU MANIAC! YOU KILLED HIM… OH DAMN YOU… GOD, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

Nick looked next to the body of the pig where a revolver lay on the floor.

"He was shot."

"But... But... We kept watched on it at all time." Stammered Judy.

All three exchanged looks while the rest of the guests arrived at the scene. They then ran to the living-room where the box still waited closed. But when Bogo opened it it was empty.

"But how?!" Exclaimed Judy. "How? We kept watch on it how in carrot's sake did the killer managed to get it?"

"He must have got hold of it while he was on watch."

"But there was three people watching it. If one of them made a move the others would have noticed."

"Did you check inside the box before your shift started?"

"No."

"So it could have been empty the whole time… Me, Clawhauser and McHorn were the first group and I didn't take my eyes off the box."

"Neither did we." Said Nick. "And we were still watching it when the gun went off which means it had to be taken before."

"So that leaves the second group; Wolford, Coon and Porkins…"

"And Porkins is dead…"

"Yes but I'm pretty sure that both Coon and lord Wolford will tell us that nothing happened on their shift. If something strange or peculiar did, they would have told us." Said Judy.

"We're missing something here. It's as if the killer could just go around undetected."

They walked back to the kitchen where everyone else was waiting for them.

"He doesn't know… He doesn't know what's coming for him…" Stated Coon angrily. "You don't mess with the Forrest brothers you hear me! YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE FORREST BROTHER! NEVER!"

"Rutter brothers…"

"Now now Porkins. Dead mammals don't speak…"

"Oh I'm so haunting your ass." Said the pig.

"Mister Coon, Lord Wolford…" Said the general. "Is it possible that someone might have had access to the gun during your watch?"

Both shook their head.

"No we never left the box out of our sight for even one moment." Confirmed Coon.

"Then how the hell did the killer managed to get it?" Asked Judy. "And what do we do now?"

"Now we go get some sleep."

"What about the gun?" Asked Nick?

"Screw the gun. If the killer is capable of magically taking it out of a closed box being watched I don't think there is much we can do to stop him."

"That sounds terribly unsafe."

"It is. Come on now, tomorrow is another day."

"Yeah but it might be worst." said Judy.

* * *

Nick had decided that today would be way better than yesterday…

In addition to his suit he put on a coat to keep him warm. He had a plan and it required it to work.

He got down the stairs and into the dining room where everyone was already gathered.

"Ah mister Wilde!" Spoke the butler. "We were waiting for you to…"

"Let me stop you right there. We can either talk all day accuse each other and spend our time watching an inanimate object only to discover that is as mysteriously gone. Or we can do something fun for the day."

All at the table looked at him confused.

"Personally I'll choose the fun stuff. So while you may argue that this is counter productive, I'm going to take a walk."

He then walked next to Judy and handed her his paw.

"Would you care to join me miss Hopps? You're the only one I actually thrust since you were with me when Coon was murdered."

Taken aback and not knowing what to do, Judy simply accepted the paw extended to her. Nick helped her up but didn't let go of her paw just yet.

"I guess I can trust you too miss Lumpy since you were also there. Feel free to join us if you want. Now we're going to take a walk, goodbye."

Nick walked off with a still baffled Judy in his wake. They both grabbed a coat and a hat and headed out to walk the spacious gardens of the propriety.

The mammals sat at the dining table looked at each other in silence.

"Well that happened…" Said lord Wolford.

* * *

Nick felt the snow get crushed under his pawpads.

"So mister Wilde… Where are we going?" Asked Judy once she found the ability to speak again.

"I thought we had settled on using our first names?"

"Very well. Where are we going Nick?"

"Nowhere in particular. The gardens are at least five times as large as the mansion. I propose we take a stroll through them and see what they have to offer."

Nick extended his elbow to her. It took her sometime before understanding and finally lock arms. They then walked off into the mammal made forest together.

Once they were deep enough in the forest to not be able to see the mansion anymore, Judy turned to Nick.

"So… Was there a particular reason you wanted me to come with you?"

"I simply desired good company."

He looked down at her with his signature grin while she smiled back at him. God was she cute when she smiled. And not cute in the way that made her mad but cute in the way that made his heart beat faster.

They kept walking and chit-chatting. They laughed at the other's joke and Judy would even sometimes give playful nudges to Nick. They eventually stopped when they found a clearing with a gazebo to rest.

"Nick… Can I ask you to do something?" She said shyly.

"Yes why?"

"I… I uh… I would like if you could close your eyes… I have a surprise for you..."

Judy quickly looked away in an attempt to hide her blush.

"I… okay I don't see why not…"

Nick knew that he was fooling himself to get his hopes up. But still when he closed his eyes he could feel his heart rate increase at the prospect of what could happen, what he wished would happen.

 _Thump thump… thump thump… thump thump…_

Judy was entranced by Nick's face. It would be so easy to just lean in and kiss him right then and there. But what would he think of her? She couldn't risk the good friendship that they had just because she was greedy and wanted more. She was so entranced by him that she almost forgot what she wanted to do and why she had asked him to close his eyes in the first place. She finally managed to pull her gaze away and tried to calm her beating heart.

 _Thump thump… thump thump… thump thump..._

After a while without any news of Judy, Nick opened one eye and then both. He looked around but couldn't find the bunny anywhere.

"Judy?"

No answer.

"Judy?"

He called louder, beginning to feel anxious.

"SURPRISE ATTACK!"

He turned to the direction the shout had come from only to be greeted by a ball of snow to the face. He slowly wiped the white powder away and looked at the bunny with an arched eyebrow and yet a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Why miss Hopps, some might say that this is quite an unlady like behavior for you to have…"

"Some might also say that I am not like the normal ladies…"

"And they couldn't be more right. And while it would be ungentlemammaly of me to reciprocate this attack on a normal lady…"

Judy's ears perked and her nose started to twitch when she understood where Nick was going at.

"... you are far from a normal lady!" He said while throwing the snowball he had been hiding behind his back.

A shriek and a giggle was his response. What was an exchange of snowballs quickly turned to a full out snow fight between the two as they tried to get cover behind the trees and to hit the other with snow. Nick quickly found himself on the losing side of this fight as Judy was able to create and throw new snowballs far faster than he was.

"What can I say mister Wilde? When you're in a snow fight with 275 of your siblings you learn that reload speed is what matters…"

Deciding that he couldn't win by fighting at distance, Nick chose to take a rather paw to paw technique of fighting…

He quickly dashed for her, evading some of her snowballs and taking other full on. But eventually he was to close for her to do anything about him and he tackled her into the snow.

She gave another shriek before she fell. Nick made sure not to harm her by falling on her and so held himself above her with his two arms. Judy's giggling stopped when their eyes met and they realised their muzzles were so closed to each other they could feel each other's heavy breath.

 _Thump thump… thump thump… thump thump…_

He could feel the warmth radiating from her body under him and so could she of his. They kept looking at the other, both mesmerized and unable to form a logical thought.

Judy saw Nick's eyes lower to look at her lips and when she thought he would finally kiss her Nick pulled away, leaving her to wonder if anything that had just happened was real or a dream.

"It's getting dark…" He said. "We should get going."

"Yeah… Of course…"

The way back was more silent than when they had first come. The small talks and banter had been replaced by the awkward silence that had left the previous moment.

* * *

The first thing they noticed when they entered the mansion was the body of lord Wolford laying on the ground…

"Oh my God is he dead?" Asked Judy while she rushed with Nick to the side of the lord's body. "Where is everybody?"

At that very moment Wolford's paw grabbed Nick's ankle, making him jump. He gave out a very high pitched scream of surprise and instinctively reach out for Judy.

Wolford's cackling then filled the room. His laugh was joined by those of all the others as they started coming out from their hiding place.

"Oh don't look so mad mister Wilde..." Said lord Wolford as he rose up. "We followed your advice and relaxed all day. You were right actually it was pretty fun. Mister Clawhauser lighted a fire in the chimney and we even made roasted marshmallow."

"Marshmallow?"

"Yeah don't worry. We got a ouija board and asked the spirits, Porkins, and they told us it was historically accurate."

"Actually the marshmallow was used as early a 2000 BC by the ancient egyptians."

They all gave an accusative look to the pig.

"All right all right, no talking unless asked I got it."

"Where's miss Lumpy?" Asked Judy.

"She isn't with you?"

"No why would she be with us?" answered Nick.

"After some time she went out to join you outside…"

They now all looked concerned.

"Did anyone go out after her?"

"Maybe. We weren't always all together so anyone could have gone out really."

The door opened and Miss Lumpy entered.

"Ah miss Lumpy here you are." Said lord Wolford. "We were starting to think something had happened to you."

"Oh no I'm definitely dead, it was just getting cold outside…"

 **I love just looking random things up on Wikipedia for Porkins' dialogue.**

 **So I work in a retail store and seeing how christmas is approaching, it's getting more and more busy. My work is going to take time out of my writing time but I should still be able to write nonetheless. However I can promise you that there won't be updates on the 23, 24 and 25 possibly also on the 26. But at the same time you should probably be occupied on those day.**

 **Did I ever tell you I love comments? Because I looooooooove comments.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So here is another chapter for you. I love to read your theories so keep them coming in the comments. This chapter is a bit on the short side but... meh.**

Judy woke up before any of the other guests as usual. The only one that woke up before her was Clawhauser the butler. He began his day at the crack of dawn to prepare breakfast for all of them. She kind of felt bad to use him this way while he worked his tail off but he seemed to enjoy it. She figured it gave him a sense of accomplishment to see them all enjoying his food while being in the role of the characters he had created. She needed to remember to find a way to thank him somehow.

"Good morning mister Clawhauser."

"Good morning miss Hopps. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Very much so, thank you."

She sat down at her designed seat around the table and looked to the one next to her. Without even knowing, she let out a wishful sigh.

Clawhauser grinned when he heard it.

With time, the other guests began to arrive and soon enough they were all seated at the table.

"So… what do we do now?" Asked doctor McHorn in between bites.

The room was silent. None of the other mammals at the table seemed willing to speak. The gun sat at the very center of the table like a center piece.

"I think we need to establish rules." Said Judy. "We can't just let people walk alone anymore. We need to create a system that can ensure everyone's safety."

"But what about the nights?" Asked Coon. "We can't all sleep together."

Judy's ears shot up and a smile spread on her face.

"I know! We can establish a guard rotation. While some sleep others can guard the house. We then Switch place and continue to keep an eye out."

"It's not ideal." Said Bogo. "We're only seven now and if we separate the group into two watch we won't have enough sleeping time. And we can't have less than three people at all time, otherwise the killer could easily kill his fellow watchmammal."

"What if we make the rotation progressive? Instead of making groups we slowly change one person for another at different times. This way we can all have a decent amount of sleep and the killer will always be at a disadvantage."

"There's another problem." Said Clawhauser. "The mansion is huge, there's no way we can effectively cover it all."

"What if we only covered the second floor?" It was lord Wolford's turn to speak now. "If the killer want to kill someone he has to reach them first. Since everyone will be on the second floor at night, either sleeping or keeping watch, there is no reason for us to guard downstairs."

"That makes sense. Does anyone object to this plan?" Asked Bogo.

Everyone at the table shook their head.

"Good. Now that we have a plan for the night, what about the day? I propose that we all stay together so the killer can't isolate someone."

"And when we need to go to the bathroom?" Asked doctor McHorn.

"Then only one person can go to the bathroom at a time. After they come back, we check the bathroom to make sure that it wasn't booby trapped."

"Sounds like a plan." Agreed Nick

* * *

Nick wanted to die…

No like literally. He considered just hanging a "kill me" sign around his neck a go to a remote place where the killer would be able to kill him. He didn't hesitate to share that with the others either.

"You're the one who didn't want to play poker anymore." Accused the general while he tried to keep his temper. "So stop whining and stay still for a minute."

"But I'm bored… And poker wasn't fun anymore. It was too easy, I kept beating you all all the time."

"Then what do you want to do!?" Bogo snapped.

"I don't know, I'm boooored."

One of the general's eyes started to twitch.

"Doctor McHorn?"

"Yes?"

"If you would be so kind as to prevent me from grabbing the gun and shooting that fox…"

* * *

"Boop!"

Nick poked at the lord's nose with one of his claw.

"Boop!"

Wolford still didn't react. They had agreed that if they just ignored mister Wilde's antics, maybe then he would stop acting like a kit.

"Boop!"

"OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH!"

The wolf shot up and moved away from the crowd that populated the living room.

"Lord Wolford, where are you going?" Inquired Clawhauser.

"Out. I'm going to try to locate miss Lumpy's dead body. If I do I think I'm just going to aly down next to her and wait for the cold to kill me."

"You can't do that. We agreed that we would only leave the group to…"

"See if I care."

Lord Wolford grabbed a coat and went out.

* * *

"I think Coon just locked himself in the bathroom and stole all our toilet privileges."

"It wouldn't surprise me." Said Bogo.

"23 bottles of beer on the wall, 23 bottles of beer. Take one down pass it around…" Nick kept singing.

"Mister Clawhauser?"

"Yes general?"

"Is there a rope anywhere in this house?"

"Yeah, I think there is some in the…"

"Show me, show me now!"

There was a certain level of desperation in the general's voice. Clawhauser didn't need to be asked twice, he quickly showed the way to Bogo. It left only Nick, Judy and McHorn who was currently trying to shove pillows deep down his ear holes.

"How can you sustain this and not even flinch?" He asked to Judy.

She simply shrugged.

"I grew up with 275 siblings, he's just mildly annoying right now."

Nick finally shut up when he saw Bogo quickly coming his way with a rope.

"Cease him!" He ordered.

McHorn was all too happy to please and immediately immobilised the annoying fox. It became quickly apparent what Bogo wanted to do once he made the move to wrap the cord around his muzzle.

"WAIT, NO! PLEASE NOT THAT! PLEASE, NO!"

Judy was quick to react. As soon as she too understood, she jumped up to her feet and placed herself in between the fox and the buffalo.

"Wait! You can't do that!"

"Miss Hopps… Have you not heard how annoying he is?"

"No believe me. If you knew what I knew… Forget about the game and everything, just don't muzzle Nick please."

Bogo turned to look at Nick. What he saw was not the face of a victorian era fix but that of one of his officer being scared to death. Bogo might be hard with them from time to time, but he really did care about their well being.

"All right… But if he doesn't shut up…"

Judy nodded and then turned to Nick.

"All right Nick I'm going to need you to listen very carefully." She spoke softly as if talking to a kit. "The bad mammals will leave you now, but if you annoy them they're going to come back. Do you understand?"

Nick quickly nodded.

"Good. Now if you're a good fox, Judy might even take you out for ice-cream after this. Would you like that?"

Another nod.

She turned to the corridor.

"YOU CAN COME OUT COON. HE'S DONE SINGING."

The door to the bathroom swung open.

"Thank God for that." Said Coon.

* * *

"I didn't thank you."

Nick and Judy were on watch duty that night along with McHorn.

"Thank me for what?"

"For stopping them."

"What else was I to do? It's only natural."

"For you maybe but… It just means a lot to me what you did and I want you to know that."

"I'll always be there when you need me Nick."

Instead of answering, Nick grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you."

Judy felt her face heat up but decided to ignore the obvious sign of her affection and simply leaned into the hug.

"Hey guys?"

They pulled away and turned to the rhino.

"Yeah?"

"I know we're supposed to be on watch and the three together at all time and all and all but do you mind if I go downstairs and take a leak?"

"Sure whatever big guy."

As soon as Judy had finished her sentence, McHorn ran down the stairs, creating a chorus that made her wonder how all the others weren't woked up.

"Ah damn!"

"What is it?"

"I'm dead."

 **I literally have a list of all the characters' names which I am slowly crossing…**

 **If you guys leave favorites/kudos or follow then you might attract more people to this story and that would make the world a better place… Don't ask me now just believe everything that I say okay.**

 **Also comments… I think I'm addicted to comments...**


	6. Chapter 6

**I want to thank everyone that basicly proofread last chapter for me. I really didn't have the time yesterday to go over it so I apologize for it being stock full of mistakes. This chapter is another rather short one but on the bright sides it gave me time to start working on future chapter in advance. Who knows, I might be able to update on christmas eve...**

"What do you mean you're dead?"

They both went down the stairs to see what McHorn meant. What they found was a weight with a note on it, hanged from the chandelier using the very same rope Bogo had wanted to muzzle Nick with earlier. On the note read: "The chandelier falls on you. You're dead."

"So that's what you meant by being dead." Said Judy.

"It's weird" responded Nick. "It's both innovative and cliche at the same time."

They stood like this, looking at the note, for a moment.

"We should wake up the others."

"Yeah, probably a good idea."

They returned to the second floor and knocked on everyone's door.

"Boom boom crash crash! Wake up." Said Nick, loudly enough to disturb everyone's sleep.

The general's door opened to reveal the obviously discontent mammal.

"What is it now mister Wilde?"

"Doctor McHorn is dead."

"What! How?"

"Crushed by the chandelier. He went down to go to the bathroom and next thing we know he's dead."

"The chandelier? But…"

Instead of asking anymore questions, Bogo simply decided to go see for himself. Nick followed him, along with the rest of the now awake guests.

"How did the killer did this?" Asked Clawhauser.

"Tripwire." Said Coon. "Look at this."

He grabbed a thin fishing wire that would have gone unnoticed to most but the sharpest eyes.

"The killer must have placed it at the base of the staircase. When doctor McHorn passed through he must have pushed the wire out of its holding and therefore let the hung up weigh fall."

"But how? It wasn't there when we went to bed and we guarded the bedrooms the whole time. If someone got out they would have been spotted before they could have even reached the staircase, let alone set up a booby trap."

"Who's got the gun?" Asked Bogo.

"McHorn did. He was the next one to end his shift so he was the one carrying the gun." Said Nick

"Give it to me."

"Why?"

"Well because someone has to have the gun."

"Yes but why you?"

"Because you two let your fellow watch mammal die under your supervision and I'm the only one here who has military training. Now give me the gun!"

Nick grumbled something and knelt to the body of McHorn.

"So…" said Bogo impatiently.

"I… I can't find it."

"What do you mean you can't find it?"

"I mean that it's not there. It's gone!"

Bogo started to look on the dead rhino's body himself.

"Are you sure he had it with him when he went to the bathroom?"

"Oh geez, you know what? I just remembered he had gave it to me. I must have left it in my other pair of pants! Of course he had it with him!"

"Where is it then?"

"I don't know!"

"Okay, okay, everybody calm down." Said Coon. "Let's go through this logically. If it was on McHorn and now is not, then the killer must have taken it."

"But how?" Asked Judy. "When we found doctor McHorn, we both got back up the stairs and woke up everybody. There is no way someone could have taken the gun in that time without us noticing he wasn't with the others."

"Let's not focus on how but on whom. If the killer did take the gun then they probably still have it on them. We're going to search everyone. Mister Wilde, miss Hopps, you're the first ones to go since you had the most occasions of stealing the gun."

"True enough I suppose."

The good thing about role-playing with police officers was that they all knew how to make an effective search without being invasive. When they both turned out to have nothing on them, they moved to search the others. Clawhauser took a bit more time since they knew he was able to hide whole donuts in between his folds but he too turned out clean.

When it came time for lord Wolford to be searched, Nick approached him with a grin.

"Do you have a gun in your pocket or are you simply happy to see me?"

"Neither just get it over with."

Nick did just that and began searching him. In the end none of them had the weapon.

"Okay…" Said Coon. "So I really didn't expect that but it does mean that if nobody has the gun on them then it must be somewhere in the house."

"Really? How did you figure that one out?" Said Nick.

Coon simply sneered at him.

"If the killer has hidden the weapon, then it means he plans on using it. We need to search the house but with can't do it all on our own. We have to search room by room as a group. Otherwise we might just ask politely to the killer to take the gun while we have our backs' turned."

"But this could take all night!" Whined Nick.

"Then we better start right now."

* * *

It took all night…

It took all night and in the end they didn't even find the weapon. They searched the whole mansion thoroughly, lifting every book and looking under every piece of furniture. If the gun had been hidden in the house then they would have found it but they didn't. Hell, they even did a second sweep just to make sure they hadn't missed anything on the first time.

"I don't understand…" Slurred Coon. "We search everywhere… Like really everywhere…"

They were all sitting on the couch looking like they had turned into zombies. They would sometime close their eyes and let their heads fall to the side only to be stirred up.

"I don't understand, is anything even real?"

"I wanna go to sleep." Whined Nick.

"We… can't…" Said Bogo with difficulty. "If we do… we'll end up on weird time zones and… stuff…"

"Why is it called ice-scream?" Said Judy. "Ice can't scream it doesn't have a mouth."

"I could go for ice-cream…" Said Clawhauser.

"How many more hours chief?" Asked Nick.

General Bogo painfully took a pocket watch out of his pocket and looked at it.

"Four more hours and we can go to sleep."

Wolford started to sob.

Meanwhile, Fangmeyer, Porkins, doctor Lumpy and McHorn looked at the sorry mess that sat in front of them.

"Am I the only one who's glad they're dead?" Asked the rhino.

"Nope!" They all answered in unison.

Judy gasped.

"Is it because the cows scream?"

* * *

When the time to go to bed finally arrived, the six mammals let out a relieved sigh. Getting up the stairs to their bedrooms felt like climbing a mountain but it was worth the effort. They had agreed to forget about the night's watch and just be careful to not trigger any traps in the morning.

Not everyone made it up the stairs. Last's he saw them, Hopps and Wilde had fallen asleep on the couch. Judy had been splayed out over Nick's chest and had started to snore. Meanwhile, the fox had instinctively wrapped his arms over her and kept her close to him. They had looked to be quite happy to sleep this way so no one had bothered to wake them up.

Coon grinned. Those two were so obliviously in love with each other. Literally everyone around them could see it but themselves.

"Maybe…" He thought. "Maybe, just maybe they'll figure it out before christmas."

Coon didn't think about it any further. He had much more important things to care about like the bed that waited for him. He let himself crash onto the mattress with a happy sigh. As soon as Coon's head hit his pillow and his eyes closed, he fell asleep. He didn't wake up until he felt himself being prodded on the shoulder. When he opened his eyes, he saw a silhouette standing over him.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just let me go back to sleep."

 **The list of names is getting shorter and shorter… I'm starting to run out of idea as to how they die and what happens during the day. That's why if you haven't noticed the Chapter's are getting shorter. The first draft of this one didn't even make it past the 1000 words mark. The first chapter was big and way better than all the others because I had over a month to think about it, but I'm making these new chapters up on daily basis. That's why if you have any good idea for something that might be funny or fluffy send it to me. Who knows, I might just include them in the story...**


	7. Chapter 7

**God it took me some time to write this one. I'm really sorry for posting this one later than I usually do but the words just wouldn't come to me so it took me some time. But it's there now and it's your's to enjoy…**

Judy woke up in a fuzzy red blanket. God, she loved that fuzzy red blanket. Why didn't she have a fuzzy red blanket at home? She should get a fuzzy red blanket, fuzzy red blankets are the best. The fuzzy red blanket rumbled and Judy let herself be soothed by the vibrations.

That was until she realised that blankets don't usually rumble…

She opened one eye and then the other when she realised that the fuzzy red blanket was actually Nick's tail that she was hugging. She felt her face heat up and probably become as red as Nick's fur. She didn't move however. She didn't want to wake him up and moreover she was fine with staying like this for a bit longer…

Nick seemed to have an other idea however…

In his sleep, Nick turned to his side pushing the bunny off his chest and onto the ground next to the couch. There was a yelp then a thump as she hit the ground. Nick shot up, awoken by the sound.

"Carrots? What are you doing on the ground?"

After coming up with a lame excuse, they both made their way to the dining area. They carefully examined the ground before each step as to make sure they wouldn't trigger something.

"It's alright." Came the voice of Clawhauser. "I checked for any traps myself when I got down."

Their heads shot up to look at the butler with a happy smile before it turned into a frown. Judy squinted her eyes, looked at him and then at the floor before her. Without her saying anything, Clawhauser guessed what she thought.

"Yeah, I guess that's a thing the killer would say." He chuckled.

Clawhauser returned to the kitchen to continue preparing breakfast, leaving Judy and Nick to closely inspect every tile on the floor. The others soon followed also watching their steps until they were all seated.

Well all but one…

"Where's Coon?" Asked Judy. "He's normally up by now no?"

"Maybe he just overslept. He was pretty tired last night."

"I think we were all." Said lord Wolford. "You two didn't even make it off the couch."

"So that's why you were on the ground?"

"Oh she wasn't sleeping on the ground let me tell you that!"

"What do you mean?" Nick asked the grinning wolf, unaware of Judy's growing discomfort.

"Anyways…" She cut them. "I think we should go check on him no?"

"Considering the previous trends?" Said Bogo. "It's probably a good idea."

They walked up the stairs as a group and came to a halt in front of mister Coon's door.

"Mister Coon? Is everything alright?" Said the general after knocking on his door.

When silence was his answer, Bogo put his hoof on the doorknob and twisted it. He pushed the door open and entered the darkly lit room.

Coon laid still in bed, limbs spread out as if he had been struggling. A pillow laid next to him.

"He was asphyxiated…" Said Nick. "Asphyxiated with his own pillow."

"It seems the killer just continues to pick us off one by one…" Said general Bogo.

"So what do we do now?" Asked Nick.

Silence…

"Wanna finish breakfast?"

"Yeah." They all answered in unison.

* * *

"So…" Began Nick. "I don't want to bother you… but I'm really really bored."

The group of mammals had been sitting together on the couch for the past few hours now. It seemed as if it was the only thing they were doing these days.

"Yeah me too actually." Said Judy.

"Well…" Said Clawhauser while looking at his pocket watch. "It's about time I start to prepare dinner. You want to help out?"

Judy's eyes widened in excitement.

"Oh yes! And we can all cook together like we did me and my siblings with my mom! And we can make a big meal… and… and it'll be fun and…"

Judy was literally jumping in place at the idea.

"I don't see why not." Said Bogo.

"Okay but if we're cooking in group, we need two things. One, everyone to watch the plates at all time. The last thing we want is someone being poisoned. And two wine, lots of wine. Miss Hopps dear if you could go down to the wine cellar and pick up a few bottles. I'll take white…"

"Same for me." Said Wolford.

"I'll take red." Said Bogo.

"Is there any strong?" Asked Nick.

They all looked at him.

"What? I'm not a wine kind of mammal okay."

"I don't know. You can go look with miss Hopps."

As the three others went to the kitchen, Nick and Judy went their way towards the wine cellar. They went down a set of stairs into the basement. They opened a heavy wooden door and entered the old cellar.

"Carrots stick! I've never seen so many wine bottles in one place."

"How are we supposed to chose amongst them exactly?"

"I… I don't I guess we can just…"

THUMP!

The sound made them both freeze. They slowly turned their head to see that the door had closed behind them.

"Judy…"

"Hun?"

"There is no handle on this side of the door..."

They both ran to the heavy door and tried to push it open. When that didn't work they started knocking on it and calling for help.

"Nonononono! COME ON!"

"It's not going to work Judy. They're in the kitchen and we're all the way down in the basement."

"So what do we do now?"

"We wait until they wonder what happened to us and they come looking. Until then we might as well get comfortable…"

Nick went through the alleys of stocked wine racks.

"Ah there's the strong!"

* * *

"Day 146…" Said Nick. "There are still no sign of rescue coming. Hopes for a rescue are starting to diminish and resources are being spread thin. Fortunately we still have enough to drink for months…"

He stopped to take a swig of the bottle of strong he had opened.

"What worries me the most is our food situation. Fortunately it just happens that a rather tasty looking bunny got locked in here with me... If it comes to it, I might just have to eat her…"

Nick grinned at her with all the smugness he could muster, causing her to look away. She blushed and giggled but otherwise ignored his comment.

"Why do you like strong so much more than wine anyway?"

Nick and Judy were seated on the ground next to each other, back pressed against one of the cold stone wall.

"Well miss Hopps…" Nick said without breaking character. "Back in the capital I have this friend of mine, Finnick. A business associate of sort, he is the one who introduced me to the wonders of spirits."

"It still doesn't explain why you prefer it over wine."

"Well, let's just that before I made my fortune, business was rough. A cheap strong ale is always easier to get than a good bottle of wine. I guess I developed a taste for it but not for wine..."

"Can I have some?"

"Of course." He said while handing her the opened bottle.

She brought it to her lips and immediately pulled it away while coughing strongly.

"God, this is horrible!"

"What is it m'lady? A strong and independant female like you can't handle a bit of liquor?"

"Of course I can!" She said almost offended. "I simply choose not to."

"Of course… The reason you were coughing so hard, half the bottle is soaking the fur of your cheek is because you chose to."

Not having even realised she had spirit on her cheek, Judy passed her paw on the right side of her face to check.

"Wrong side. Here, just let me…"

Nick reached with his right paw to her left cheek in the goal of brushing the wet spot. Only when he finally reached her, he froze. As if it had a mind of its own, his thumb started stroking the side of her head while his paw stayed one her cheek.

Before she even knew it or had time to react, Judy instinctively leaned into the touch. She closed her eyes and let out a content sigh before opening them again worried. She thought she would see the confused or maybe even repulsed face of her friend and partner after having displayed a so obvious sign of affection. What she saw instead was Nick looking entranced by something. It's then that she noticed he was looking at her lips again.

Nick tilted his head and slowly started closing his eyes while he approached her face. Judy did the same eager for what was to come. She could feel his breath on her lips as their muzzles almost made contact…

Almost being the key word…

"Here you are you two!"

At the sound of the general's voice, both of them quickly pulled away as if they had just been shocked. Their face flushed red as Bogo continued to speak, clueless to what had almost happened.

"We were starting to get worried, what took you so long?"

"Heu… we… we… heu… we got stuck… the...the door closed behind us and there's no handle on this side…" Judy struggled to get her ability to speak back while Nick simply looked away, not glancing at her or Bogo.

"Is everything alright?"

"Y-Yeah… it's fine…"

Bogo didn't look to be satisfied with that answer but chose not to press on.

"Well come on then. Dinner's almost ready."

* * *

"A toast! To our fallen friends and to those who still live!"

Clawhauser brought his glass to his lips after having held it in the air for a few seconds. The others followed after him and then went on to eat. They had two meals, one for the preys and one for the predators.

Judy was about to compliment Clawhauser by saying that the salad she was eating was quite good when an odd sound made her stop. Apparently She wasn't the only one to have noticed since all the others were looking with concerned expressions at general Bogo. General Bogo who, she had just realised, was holding his fist to the top of his chest as if he was choking on something.

No it's not as if, he was actually choking on something…

Bogo rose from his seat and punched the top of his chest vigorously (while trying as best as he could with his other hoof to mime that he was role-playing). After a few moment of struggling, his eyes simply rolled backwards and he collapsed to the ground.

"He… Oh God he's dead!" Said Clawhauser.

"He was poisoned…" Continued Wolford.

 **We're coming close to the end now. So close that there might be only one or two chapter before christmas (there will be a kind of epilogue after it). It really depends how I decide to fracture the event's that are going to follow. If I do only one chapter though it might be longer than the usual ones and therefore take more time. So there is the possibility that I don't update tomorrow but if I don't it probably means that there is one extra big chapter coming along.**

 **So in the meantime, take care of yourself, leave a comment or favorite/kudo and follow if you feel like it and I'll see you next time…**

 **Ps: Is "fuzzy red blanket" like beetlejuice, if you say it three times aloud it'll appear?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay… So I know how I said that it would take max two days to post this chapter and we're on the third on but I kind of got… sidetracked (I played video games). However, I was still able to update this before christmas and that's what is important.**

 **So here it is guys… The ULTIMATE chapter. All your questions will be answered and you will finally know the true Identity of the murderer… Enjoy...**

"How? How was he poisoned? I thought the rule was to survey the plates at all time!"

"It was and we did!" Defended Clawhauser.

Lord Wolford quickly nodded in agreement.

"Well apparently not enough because the general is dead!"

"Easy for you to judge…" Snapped Wolford. "If you two hadn't gone and locked yourself up then this might not have even happened!"

"Don't blame his death on us!" Snarled Nick. "You're the one who failed to do a task as simple as watch food."

"Wait…" Interrupted judy. "We were stuck in the wine cellar…"

"Yeah and…"

"Well we didn't actually have access to the plates… Which means that…"

As the words sank in, Clawhauser and Wolford slowly turned to face each other.

"It's you…" They both said at the same time.

As if they were part of some synchronised dance, mister Clawhauser and lord Wolford shot up from their seats and pointed a paw at each other.

"It's him!"

"No it's him!"

"Don't pretend it's me when it's clearly you!"

"What are you talking about? You're the murderer here!"

"Oh no don't you go there! I know I'm innocent so it means that you are the killer!"

"No no no! I'm innocent. You are the killer!"

"Okay okay everybody calm down." said Nick. "One of you is the murderer we just need to figure out who."

"Easier said than done. We've been trying to figure this out for the past week." Said Judy.

"Mister Clawhauser?"

"Yes?"

"Remember when you locked me up in my room?"

"Yes… sorry about that…"

"I need those keys… Now!"

* * *

Nick took a step back and looked at the closed door.

"Here you go, two mammals locked up for you. One is a murderer and the other is an innocent, we just need to find which is which."

"And how do we do that exactly?" Asked Judy.

"We go back over the evidences."

"Or lack thereof."

"Our job should be easier now that our suspect pool has been so narrowed. We only need to go back over the murders and see which of lord Wolford or mister Clawhauser is the most likely to have committed them."

They walked down the stairs and into the living room. They crashed on the couch and faced the fireplace.

"So…" Started Nick. "The first to die was lord Spots."

"Both could have done it. Clawhauser had plenty of occasions to poison his drink when he went to deliver it to him. But Wolford could have also slipped something in his drink while we were distracted."

"Yes but he would have also been more likely to get caught. While Clawhauser would have been alone. I didn't really look at the glasses but if Wolford had done it maybe then it would have caught my eye."

"Okay so for lord Spots' murder we're leaning towards Clawhauser."

"Now I don't understand what happened for Fangmeyer. I swear the killer just vanished into thin air. I can't see how either of them would have done it."

"Here's my thinking." Said Judy. "We don't know how the killer got out so let's just assume he did and move on. Now the killer might be sneaky but he can't break the laws of physics..."

"I'm not sure where this is going."

"Hold on let me finish! So the killer can't teleport which means that he must have been close by when you discovered Mrs Fangmeyer."

"Wolford… Lord Wolford was the first one to arrive at the scene after me."

"Exactly! Now let's assume that he somehow managed to sneak by you and get out of the room while you checked on Fangmeyer. He could then have turned around and pretend to just have arrived. Not only that but catching you would have benefited him by putting the suspicion on someone else."

"He did seem to latch onto me a lot even after we had established I couldn't have done it."

"Okay so Wolford is our main suspect for Mrs Fangmeyer's murder. We then come to Porkins…" Said Judy.

"Now we don't know much about Porkins' murder apart that he was shot. We need to figure out who had the best opportunity to steal the gun from the box. Clawhauser was in the first watch with general Bogo and he assured us that nothing had happened then."

"Yes but so did Coon."

"Yes but the first watch also had doctor McHorn and while we didn't directly ask him, he would have said if he saw something suspicious. On the other paw, the third member of the second watch was Porkins himself and we can't be sure he didn't see something."

"He would have talked about it when it happened, why would he wait to be killed before wanting to talk about seeing Wolford take the gun?"

"I know I know, but hear me out. Imagine that the first member of the watch is either Clawhauser or Wolford, the second member either Bogo or Coon and the third McHorn or Porkins. Imagine then that a mundane event distracts both the second and third member. The first then uses that distraction to take the revolver unnoticed. However, the third member does see something out of the corner of his eyes but thinks nothing of it for the moment. They wouldn't think about it further unless the gun seems to have magically disappeared. Then the event would come back to their mind…"

"You think Porkins saw something and Wolford killed him to make sure he wouldn't speak?"

"Exactly!"

"I suppose it's the best we got… So we say lord Wolford again."

"As for miss Lumpy I have absolutely no clue! Anyone could have followed her out and killed her."

"Yes but…" Judy let the word hang as she thought something over. "If they had went directly after her it would have been too suspicious and the others would have noticed. Therefor, the killer must have waited some time after she left and then gone out while nobody was watching."

"We walked far from the mansion so it would have taken some time for her to find us which means the killer had a big window to go out."

"Yes but the killer would have also needed two things. One, a way to find her and two, the speed to catch up with her before she reached us and to get back before his absence was noticed. Now, while both cheetahs and wolves have a good enough sense of smell, wolves' are better. And I don't know about you but I can't see Clawhauser running very fast."

"You are one clever bunny!"

"Why thank you mister Wilde, you're too kind!"

They both laughed.

"Okay so Wolford again." Said Nick. "Doesn't look good for him."

"The next to die was McHorn."

"The killer set a trap at the base of the staircase but we never actually got any clues as to who could have done it."

"We might have actually." Said Judy. "You remember what rope had been used to hang the weight/chandelier?"

"Yeah it was the same one they tried to muzzle me with. Why?"

"Lord Wolford had gone out before that. He would have never seen the rope before, while Clawhauser knew exactly where it was stored."

"Yes but Wolford could have stumbled on it after that."

"Yes but it still is less likely."

"Clawhauser it is then. Next stop: Coon."

"Coon was murdered while we we're all sleeping…"

Silence…

"Yeah we don't have anything else do we?" Asked Nick.

"Nope."

"So we finally come to Bogo…"

"We were stuck in the wine cellar when Bogo's meal was poisoned so we don't really have much to work with there either." Said Judy.

"The wine cellar…"

"Listen Nick… about what happened back there…"

"No no no wait! The wine! Bogo's meal wasn't poisoned, his wine glass was!"

"But we picked the wine ourselves."

"Yes but Wolford is the one who poured the glasses. He must have slipped something in Bogo's."

"That… that would work…"

"You know what this means?"

"Lord Wolford is the killer…"

Nick slowly nodded at her.

"Let's have a small chat with him why don't we…"

* * *

Wolford's room was empty. It would have seemed as if it had never been disturbed if it was not for the open window that let the wind blow into the room.

"He's gone…" Said Nick. "He escaped…"

"He must have gone through the window and climbed down the building."

"That's how he got around undetected! All this time he was using the outside of the building to get around."

"We need to get Clawhauser and hunt Wolford down before he can truly escape."

They ran towards Clawhauser's room and unlocked it. Judy pushed the door opened and gasped at what she found.

"Oh no!"

Mister Clawhauser was already dead. A box of sweet pastries laid on his bed with only one of the desert missing from it. The sugary treat was lying on the ground next to Clawhauser, a bite taken from it.

"He fooled us. He fooled us again."

Judy stepped closer and took a look at the box. She lifted it up and put it aside once she saw what was hidden under it…

A revolver…

Nick stepped forward to stand next to her.

"Why would he give us the gun?" He asked.

"I think he's challenging us…"

"Well then…" Nick picked up the gun. "Challenge accepted. Let's go get that wolf shall we?"

* * *

They were running through the snow, keeping a low profile as not to be seen but keeping an eye out for Wolford. Nick was on all fours, sniffing the ground to try and find the trail of the wolf.

They were at a disadvantage in this game. Lord Wolford had a way better sense of smell than Nick and he was expecting them to come after him.

"Got anything yet?" Judy whispered.

"No. If at least I knew what direction to go, we could get closer to him and then I could pick up his scent… Wait!"

"You can smell him?"

"No but I have an idea…"

Nick turned to her and gave her his proudest, smuggest grin before he tilted his head up.

"AAAH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

As Nick began howling, Judy couldn't help but let out a chuckle. She then proceeded to imitate him.

"AAH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

"AAH-WOOOH-OOH-OOH!"

They stopped howling when they heard the response, coming no doubt from Wolford. They ran towards the direction of the sound at full speed.

"I got a trail!" Exclaimed Nick.

"Go get him boy!"

Judy followed Nick who zigzaged through the forest. He followed the trail diligently until finally he could feel the smell becoming stronger and stronger. There was no doubt that lord Wolford knew they were on his tail by now but that didn't matter. Wolford might be fast but he could never outrun the two of them.

"He's just up ahead."

They went event faster until finally they reached a snow covered clearing. They could see the wolf in front of them with his back turned trying to run away.

"WOLFORD STOP!" Screamed Nick while he aimed the revolver.

The lord stopped in his track before he slowly turned to face them. He raised his paw above his head in a sign of surrender when he saw Nick holding the gun.

"Listen… This really isn't what it looks like…"

"Oh yeah suuuuure buddy! We're totally going to fall for that."

"No I tell you. Clawhauser is the murderer not me."

"Clawhauser is dead."

"What!?"

For a moment Wolford seemed genuinely confused but then something dawned on him.

"Oh I see… So this is how it is then hey? Fine I surrender. You got me, you got me good… It's a shame that…"

Wolford didn't finish his sentence. Instead he leaped at Nick in an attempt to snatch the gun from his paw. But before he could do so Nick reacted and pressed the trigger. Wolford stopped in his track before he stumbled a bit and fell to the ground.

A few moments passed and Nick finally dropped the gun to the floor before he turned around to face Judy.

"We did it! We did it Judy, we caught the murderer!"

She opened her mouth to cheer him on but instead released a squeak when Nick picked her up and spun her around. He then brought her in for a hug which she returned while still giggling. He held her like this for some time, enjoying the feeling of being so close to her.

But something was nagging at him…

"Wait if Wolford used the windows to get around, how was he the first to arrive at Fangmeyer's murder scene? Wouldn't it have taken him more ti…"

Nick was stopped by the distinctive click of a gun's hammer being pulled and by the feelling of a barrel being pressed against his chest…

"Judy?" He whispered, still hugging her.

"I'm sorry Nick… I'm so sorry…"

She pulled away from their embrace to stand in front of him, gun pointed in his direction.

"Judy no…"

He raised his paws in surrender and looked down to see where he had dropped the revolver. To his surprise, it was still there but too far for him to reach before she shot him.

"How? How could it be you, you were with me when they died?"

"Tricks and illusions… like a magician…"

"Well, good job because you really pulled a bunny out of your hat on this one..."

Judy rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Really Nick? In this situation?"

"You know me. I can't help it. But the question still stands Judy. How? How the hell?"

"Lord Spots was easy to kill since no one was on the lookout for a killer. I simply slipped the poison in his glass while you distracted everyone with your character breaking. Thanks for that by the way."

"You're welcome."

"Then I followed Fangmeyer the next night. After I saw her open the safe I stabbed her. I expected a longer reaction time but then I heard you coming just seconds after I killed her. So in my panic I reached for the closest exit which was the window…"

"But Clawhauser said that…"

"Clawhauser said that the windows could not be opened from the outside. He didn't say anything about the inside. I climbed up the rain gutter to my bedroom's window which was already opened. However in my hasted escape I didn't have the time to close the living-room's behind me. A good thing considering Coon applied powder on the door knob after that. I would have gone through the door that night if he hadn't told me about it. Instead I climbed through the window that I had left opened. I placed the gift box and stole the money as a red herring. Then I climbed back out and closed the window behind me."

"The gun… How did you steal the gun? Moreover, how did you kill Porkins while being in the same room as me?"

For answer, Judy simply wiggled the revolver she was holding. The exact same model as the one that was laying next to Nick.

"There were always two guns Nick. Just before the second watch ended and before our's started, I set up a trip wire at the kitchen's entrance and linked it to the second gun's trigger. When Porkins walked into the kitchen he triggered the trap. The gun fired at him before falling from it's mount, making it look as if someone had just dropped it. When you and miss Lumpy ran towards the source of the gunfire sound, I opened the box and took the first gun, making it look as if there had been only one weapon. I then ran back to the kitchen and picked up the tripwire that no one had seen. I later used the very same wire to kill McHorn."

"And for miss Lumpy? How did you kill her?"

"Simple. Remember when I asked you to close your eyes? I had heard Lumpy coming…" She said while pointing to one of her ears. "I approached her and made myself seem as friendly as possible. After all, you trusted me because I was with you when Porkins died and so did she. I knocked her unconscious with a rock and then killed her…"

"And all that while I had my eyes closed?"

"I'm very fast."

"Let me guess… The night after, while you were pretending to sleep, you climbed down the rain gutter again and reached the first floor which wasn't being guarded. You setup your overly complicated chandelier trap using the tripwire from before and the rope you had seen Bogo use earlier. You then waited for someone to trigger it and it happened to be during your guard shift."

"Exactly."

"But how did you make the gun disappear again? We searched everywhere for it all night!"

"Don't remind me. Just after you had turned around to go wake up the others I grabbed the gun from McHorn's body. I then followed you up and pretended to go wake up the others too. What I really did was to open one of the hallway's window opposite to where you were looking and with a good throw managed to throw the gun into the rain gutter where I had left the other gun during my last climb. We searched everywhere IN the house... but not out…"

"Then it was Coon's turn…"

"Coon was the hardest since I had to actually wake up early to kill him. But other than that it didn't cause anymore problems."

"And finally we come to Bogo… but you were trapped with me in the wine cellar…"

"You were right about one thing Nick. It wasn't the food that was poisoned, it was the wine. However, it wasn't Bogo's glass but rather the whole bottle. He was the only one to drink red so I poisoned the red bottle, with the same poisoned I used on lord Spots, while we were in the cave."

"But I…"

"You were too busy looking for spirits to see me poison the bottle. I knew that with Bogo's death, the suspicion would fall on Wolford and Clawhauser and with both of them knowing they weren't the murderer, they would accuse each other. So I place a poisoned box of sweets in Clawhauser's room beforehand. I knew you would antagonize Wolford after he had accused you and that you were more likely to think he was the killer so I kept him for last. I hadn't planned on him running away but it worked out in the end. You were even more sure that he was guilty."

"You used me…"

"It's called a hustle sweetheart."

"And now we come to me… your next and last victim…"

"I'm so sorry Nick… I really am. I wish things could be different but this has to be…"

Nick sighed.

"Goodbye Judy…"

She repressed a sob, closed her eyes and pressed the trigger. The sound of thunder filled the forest and left it empty with silence once it faded. She opened her eyes to see Nick clutching at his chest. He tried to stay up but failed and dropped to his knees. He then lied down on his back while still clutching his wound.

And then suddenly started mimicking blood spurting out from it…

"Blood! Blood! Blood and… death!"

Nick went limp, lolling his tongue out while his head rolled to the side.

"Wow, great way to ruin a finally slick!"

"Aw come on Carrots. Look at the poor guys, they were freezing their tails off. I needed to put an end to the whole roleplay thing."

Judy looked at the previously "dead" mammals around her. They had kept silent while following them so it was as if they weren't there at all.

"He does have a point." Said doctor Lumpy while rubbing her arms for warmth.

"What I don't understand…" Began Bogo. "Is how a whole group of trained police officers managed to fail to catch the killer."

"Don't judge too hard chief. No one was expecting the cute little bunny to be such a vicious murderer…"

"I swear Nick... you call me cute again and I'll switch this prop gun for a real one."

"Aw you know you like it when I call you cute..."

She kind of did but she would never admit to that.

"Yeah plus you were part of the group chief don't forget about that." Said McHorn.

"This is all well and good…" Shivered Lumpy. "But couldn't we take this conversation inside?"

"Yeah all right, let's go."

* * *

"I still can't believe you figuratively, literally killed me."

They were walking back towards the mansion now. Nick and Judy were hanging a bit behind the rest of the group, out of earshot.

"Get over it Nick it was a game." Judy rolled her eyes.

"Yeah but even in the game I was your best friend! I would have expected you to let me go or something. To let me believe Wolford had done it but no! You killed me! It kind of hurts you know?"

Nick gave her the sad eyes and clutched is heart in feigned hurt.

"Allright slick Nick. What can I do to make you forgive me?"

"You can go out with me…"

Judy stopped dead in her tracks. The way it had been so casually said made her doubt she had heard the right thing.

"W-What did you say?"

"I… heu…" Nick was looking down at his feet while he scratched the back of his head. All his usual self confidence seemed to have disappeared in an instant. "I… Well I was wondering if… If you want to of course… if you would go out with me?"

"G-Go out… As… as in a date?"

"Y-yes…" He whispered that last word so quietly, Judy almost didn't hear him.

Judy for her part couldn't find it in her to talk…

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"No!... I mean no it's fine. I… Heu… I'd like it… alot…"

A wide and hopeful smile the covered Nick's face.

"R-Really?"

"Yeah… I mean… I'd like to go out with you…"

A deep blush took over Judy and she couldn't stop smiling…

She felt like an idiot…

The most happy idiot on the planet…

 **That's it! Now you know the truth. Shoutout to Haradion for having figured it out since chapter 4. Although he did later backtrack into thinking it was Wolford but he had guessed right initially. I just want to say I had written "Red herring" next to Wolford's name in my list. I would love to know who you guys thought it was at first and then how that changed if it changed at all.**

 **This isn't the last chapter by the way. There will be another one that I'll post somewhere between christmas and New Year's eve. It'll be an epilogue and it'll be so fluffy you'll wanna die! So if you were disappointed to not see anymore WildeHopps then don't worry because it's all to come.**

 **Other than that I wish you a merry christmas to you all!**


	9. Epilogue

**I'M HERE! I'm here, I'm not dead! So, so sorry everyone but it was the festivities and I kinda got carried away and if that wasn't enough of course I got sick! Took me some time to get better and then some more to finish this chapter (I was lacking inspiration by times) But now it's finally here. Again I am so sorry about the delay, I know I promised I would release the epilogue in 2016 and then go back to my other story but hey… what can you do?**

 **Anyways… Here is your (very late) christmas gift to you all. Hope you enjoy.**

It took some time for Judy to realise it. To be fair, she had only just woken up and her mind was still clouded with sleep. But slowly the gears in her head started churning and as it came to her, her eyes opened wide.

"It's christmas…" She whispered to no one in particular.

She shot up from her bed with wide excited eyes.

"It's christmas!" She repeated with more enthusiasm this time.

Judy ran towards the closet and opened it to reveal the selection of clothing. Done with the fancy victorian dresses that, she had to admit, looked good on her. Now was the time for something actually comfortable. She would usually dress up in her pajamas on christmas morning and join her siblings but she was spending this christmas with her colleagues and friends. So instead of the traditional attire, she opted for something a little more appropriate while still remaining comfy.

She put on a christmas sweater her mother had made for her last year and cotton leggings. It might not be the prettiest of outfits but she didn't care. What was important was that she was comfortable in it.

Judy walked down the stairs of the mansion two steps at a time. The whole murder mystery thing was fun but she was glad it was over. She had enough of pretending to murder her friends and… Whatever Nick and her were… She'd have to talk with him about that later.

Just thinking back at how he had reacted after he had asked her out and she had said yes. They had been both smiling for at least 15 minutes after that without saying a word. Even now she still felt giddy when she thought about it.

She shook her head, trying to cast away the image of his smile. God did he look handsome when he smiled… Actually he pretty much always looked good. The way his orange fur would blow in the wind and how soft it looked… the way his eyes were so enticing she could get lost in them for hours…

Judy shook herself again. Now was not the time to go all teenage love over her partner. Now was the time to celebrate christmas with her friends. She was sure she would get plenty of time for the former at a later time.

* * *

There wasn't much in this world that Nick disliked more than getting up early. The reason he would usually do it was because the benefits outweighed the cost. And these benefits usually wore the name carrots and no of course he wasn't thinking about the vegetable. But today, Nick had a different reason to set his alarm early (although his usual motivation was still there).

Today was christmas day…

It had been so long since Nick had celebrated christmas. The last time he did was when he was twelve before he started hustling. After that the only thing that was different for christmas was that he wouldn't spend the day out on the street trying to scam mammals out of their money. Finnick and him had agreed to take a day off every christmas, not because they wanted to but because it was useless since there was barely anyone out.

But this year it was different. This year Nick had actually something to look up to, something in the form of an overactive bunny with whom he was desperately in love with.

Nick smiled. How long now had he been in love with her? He didn't know himself when it started but for quite some times now she had been the only thing filling his mind in his down times. He never thought he would see the day where he had a shot with her. After all he was a fox and she a bunny. He would have never dared to ask her out, in fear of ruining the friendship that they had, if it wasn't for how she had acted in the wine cellar. Even then he hadn't meant to ask her out. But when she had asked him how she could make up to him the words had just slipped out.

It was all for the better though. Now he knew how she felt and now he had a shot.

And it just happened that this shot was on christmas day. Who knew, maybe this was a christmas miracle? It certainly felt like one to him.

Nick walked to his closet and chose to wear his signature green pawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, a surefire way to get the ladies. He then walked down the stairs to see that everyone was already up even though he had gotten an early start.

"Mornin' every…"

Nick's sentence died on his lips when he saw judy. She looked beautiful… The way her leggings complimented her hips and her… well you know… It nearly drove him mad.

He quickly shook his head.

"Mornin' everyone." Nick tried again.

"Mornin'." They answered together.

Nick sat next to Judy on the couch.

"Nice sweater carrots."

Judy was wearing a knitted sweater depicting a bunny with what he assumed to be a cop hat on. Fitting...

"Thanks. My mom made it last year." She then seemed to size him up for a moment before speaking again. "You know I could ask her to make you one if you want… I think it would look cute on you."

Nick gave a hearty laugh.

"I can imagine you… 'Hey mom could you make a christmas sweater please. Yeah it's for a fox.' And then your father faints."

"Aw don't be like that. My parents know about you and they love you."

"You're parents are fine with you being friend with a fox?"

"Of course! You don't give them enough credits."

Nick cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Weren't they the one to give you the fox repellent?"

"Okay, yes admittedly they did do that… But that was before. They've change now."

"In my experience mammals don't ever really change carrots."

"Says the ex con artist."

"Touché."

"I tell you Nick you don't have to fear anything from my parents. I've told them about you countless time. Heck I'm sure they wouldn't mind having you over for dinner if you ever find the time to come to the Burrows with me..."

"I don't know fluff…" He said looking in the distance.

Judy put her paw on Nick's arm. It sent a shiver running through his spine. He closed his eyes, savouring the contact for one second, and then turned to face her.

"My parents partnered up with another fox and he makes the best blueberry pies…"

"Blueberry pies?"

"You could have as much as you'd like…"

"I might take a rain check on that trip finally…"

Judy smiled and Nick couldn't help but smile back.

"Sorry to interrupt you two…" Came the voice of Clawhauser. "But would you mind getting the cookie platter from the kitchen. I'm afraid that if I go and get it there won't be any left when I come back."

"Sure! No problem big guy." Said Nick with an easy smile.

They got up and walked to the kitchen together. When they arrived, they found the plate to be up on a counter made for bigger mammals, and therefore out of their reach.

"Looks like we have some team work to do." Said Judy. "You grab me and launch me in the air okay?"

For answer, Nick simply put his two paws together so she might step on them to get a boost. She did just so and readied herself.

"Ready?"

Nick nodded.

"Okay in 3… 2… 1…"

Nick pushed her up and Judy used her strong legs to propel herself in the air before she graciously landed on the counter.

"Okay I see the cookies but the plate is too big to just throw off the counter."

"Can you see another way down?"

"No but… wait I think I have an idea."

Nick waited for her to develop but nothing came. He was about to ask her what she was doing before he saw something drop from the counter top.

Judy had taken an apron made for elephants and had tied its end to a drawer knob on the other side of the counter. She then threw the other end of the apron down at Nick, making a slide of the apron in the process.

"Why not have asked anybody else? This seems kind of over complicated." Said Nick.

"Stop whining and prepare yourself. I'm going to send you the plate be ready to catch it."

With this Judy sent the empty plate down the makeshift slide for Nick to catch it. She then sent the cookies one by one, allowing Nick to put them back onto the plate.

"Okay we're good." Said Nick once he had placed the last cookie on the plate. "Now if you'll just get down here so we can…"

"Weeeeeeeeeeeh!"

Nick turned around to see Judy sliding down the apron, heading towards him at high speed. He tried to place himself to catch her but wasn't able to brace in time. Judy hit him and knocked him on his back while she landed on his chest. Instinctively, his arms grabbed her by resting on her back.

Judy laid still on his chest, looking into his emerald eyes. For a moment they both held each other's gaze before Nick looked behind her and started laughing.

"What's funny?"

Instead of answering Nick simply nodded to something behind her. When she turned around at the ceiling to find what was so funny, she saw the mistletoe hanging above them. Her cheeks flushed red and she turned back to find Nick no longer laughing. He was grinning at her with half lidded eyes that took her breath away. He raised one of his paw to rest it on the side of her face, slowly stroking her drooped ear.

Judy found herself to be paralysed. She was unable to move or to look anywhere else than Nick's eyes and lips. So when she saw that his own gaze had lowered to her own lips, her heart started hammering in her chest and she was sure that he too could feel it.

Her heart beat picked up even faster when Nick started leaning towards her. Only then did she find she was finally able to move and the only thing she could do was lean towards him herself.

And then their lips met...

They both closed their eyes and enjoyed each other's taste. At first it was a simple kiss, innocent, chaste, but soon it wasn't enough. Judy snaked her arms around his neck and grasped his orange fur in her paw, trying to pull him deeper in the kiss. They grew more passionate as they simultaneously released all the feelings they had for each other and that they had kept hidden, locked away to grow and eventually blow out.

And now was the time that it blew…

Who knows how long they would have gone for if the need to breath wasn't a thing. But sadly they broke the kiss once they were out of breath. Panting heavily, they looked at each other again before Nick spoke.

"I… Eh… I think we should move on before the others wonder what happened to us."

"Oh… Yeah probably a good idea…"

Judy moved away from Nick and let him get up. They both grabbed opposite side of the plate and lifted it up. They would sometimes lock eyes and quickly look away blushing while they carried the plate together. They didn't speak a word while doing so but even with the awkward silence that had settled, they both couldn't stop smiling…

They finally reached the gathered guests and dropped the plate on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Judy then excused herself and ran off to the toilets, blushing madly.

Once she was out of sight, Nick approached the grinning cheetah.

"I know it was your idea."

"I don't know what are you talking about."

"It would have been more logic to send pretty much anybody else than us to fetch the cookies but you still asked the two smallest mammals in the room. And I bet you're the one who placed that mistletoe just above the cookie plate."

"Oh yeah there was indeed a mistletoe above the cookies. What a coincidence…"

Silence…

"So did it work?"

Nick chuckled.

"How long?"

"What do you mean?"

"How long now have you been trying get us together?"

"Ever since Hopps came back to the office one day and couldn't stop talking about the guy she had met that helped her solve the nighthowler case. You should have seen her, She couldn't stop yapping about how she had convinced him to apply at the academy and how she couldn't wait to be partners with him…"

"Wait! So you hadn't even met me and you wanted to set us up?"

"Yeah basically. But when I finally did meet you then I was sure of it. It was easy to tell by the way you looked at her and how you literally worshiped the ground underneath her feet."

"I wasn't THAT obvious!"

"Yeah you can keep telling yourself that."

At that moment Judy came back from the bathroom, looking like she had splashed water on her face.

"Okay so what do we do now?"

Clawhauser looked at his watch.

"Wait 30 seconds…"

"What? Why…"

Clawhauser interrupted the fox by holding up a finger, motioning for silence.

They looked at each other confused and thirty seconds later the front door opened.

"Lewis is very punctual." Explained Clawhauser.

"Oh oh oh! Guess who's there."

The cheetah dressed as Santa Claws came around the corner, holding a large bag that Judy could only assume was full of present. She recognised the cheetah as Clawhauser's boyfriend and the one who had played Lord Spots on the very first night.

Clawhauser immediately rose up and went to kiss his boyfriend.

"I went to the precinct and picked up the exchange gifts for you guys." Said Lewis.

He came up to the gathered crowd and took out gifts from his pouch. He then handed over the gifts to the appropriate mammal.

"So just to have a refresher of the rules. You give your gift to the person you picked and then they give theirs to the one they picked and so on."

"Who's the first to give?" Asked Nick.

"We can spin the bottle to find out." Proposed Wolford. "Here that one will do."

Wolford laid an empty wine bottle on the coffee table in the middle of the room. As they all gathered around it, he gave it a good spin. The bottle finally started to slow down before it settled on Judy.

"Bunnies first."

"Oh great! Judy picked up the gift that Clawhauser's boyfriend had brought."

"Here you go Chief I hope you like it!"

She really did. She went through a lot of trouble to find out what the chief would like. She had to go around the office until she finally found someone who knew is last name, then go through the annuary to find his number, then call his home until his wife picked up to ask her what Bogo liked… At first she thought that a DnD set was a joke...

* * *

McHorn approached Nick with a gift almost half as big as he was.

"Here you go Wilde."

"Jesus what is this? A sink?"

"Close but not quite… just open it."

Nick started ripping the wrapping paper with his claws. The first thing he saw was plastic… very colorful plastic…

"This is… a baby toilet seat…"

The plastic seat cover was made for larger mammals and therefore the right size for a full grown fox.

"Like this we won't ever have to pull you out of the precinct's toilet." Said McHorn with a huge grin. He was visibly enjoying this.

And so were the others apparently because the room had erupted into laughter.

"It's funny…" Began Porkins with short breath. "...because he really needs it!"

"No I don't!"

"I got to take a photo of this." Said Fangmeyer. "Come on Wilde grab your present and say cheese!"

Instead Nick rolled his eyes as his ears flattened against his skull. It didn't stop the tiger from taking a picture though.

"This is so hanging on the break room board for all the others to see."

"Come on Nick don't be rude. What do we say to the nice rhino?" Playfully said Judy.

Nick sighed.

"Thanks McHorn. It's very considerate of you."

"No prob amigo. Now's your turn."

At this Nick's mood lightened a bit. He took the only remaining gift and handed it over to Judy.

"Here you go carrots, this one is for you."

Judy looked at the bag which contained the gift, hidden under a pile of stuffing paper. She then looked back at the smiling fox who was holding the bag. She smiled back and accepted the gift before pulling the stuffing away. She gasped and looked at Nick, a sparkle in her eyes, as she pulled out the fox plushie holding two tickets for Gazelle's upcoming concert.

"You enjoyed the last one so I figured why not do it again?"

"Thank you Nick I love it."

"How did you even get those? They sold out over a month ago." Asked Clawhauser.

"Let's just say that Finnick usually knows how to get hard to obtain items…"

Judy quickly put her gift aside and jumped up to trap him in a hug.

"I like the plushie too…" She whispered.

"Figured your collection could use a bit of diversity…"

Judy pulled away and looked him in the eyes.

"Thank you Nick I really appreciate that."

"Ha well… Nothing's too good for you carrots."

They sat down and the others took their attention off of them to turn and talk to their neighbours. The room broke off into multiple discussions, one of which Nick was listening to before Judy tugged at his sleeve.

"Nick I eh… I need to talk to you… Privately…"

Nick looked at the full room before getting up and making sign to Judy to follow him. They went to the dining room before Nick stopped and turned to her.

"So, what is it?"

"I… Well… I was wondering about what happened earlier and… and I wanted to know… I wanted to know why you did what you did."

Nick raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't it tradition to kiss under the mistletoe?"

"Sooooo… That's why you did it? Because of the mistletoe?"

Judy looked disappointed at his answer.

"Not JUST because of the mistletoe. I also wanted to. Did you already forget that I asked you out? Because you said yes and I'm holding you up to that yes."

"No it's just that… I thought for a moment that you might have been teasing me…"

Judy looked down at her feet, slightly ashamed of herself. She played with her paws a bit before Nick took her chin gently forced her to tilt her head and look up at him.

"Hey Carrots… We both know you're not a dumb bunny so get those dumb ideas out of your head. Here I'll prove it for you."

Nick leaned forward and pressed his muzzle against her ear.

"There's no mistletoe above us right now…" He whispered.

Judy tried to look up but was stopped by Nick's lips on her own. She closed her eyes and melted into their second kiss. She had to stop herself from falling by grabbing his neck since her legs gave away. Thankfully Nick realised that and circled his arms around her back to support her. Time slowed down and what felt like a glorious eternity that couldn't last long enough passed in reality after a few seconds. When Nick pulled away he looked down into her stunned eyes.

"So… what does this make us exactly?" She asked timidly.

"I… I don't know… What do you want us to be?"

"Well I don't know. What do you want us to be?" She answered awkwardly.

"I… I don't know. I really, REALLY like you and… And I like this…"

"So… Are we a couple?"

"Do you want us to be a couple?"

GOD YES! She hadn't wanted something so much since she had first decided to become a cop when she was a kit. She hadn't been able to think about anything else for the past few months now… But she couldn't just say that. No she had to play it cool.

"Yes!... I mean… if you want to that is…"

Nope… She was so obvious.

"I… I would like that…"

Judy felt so happy inside it felt like butterflies high on cocaine were having a rave inside her stomach.

"So what now?"

"I guess we're a couple…" Nick said. He then extended his paw for her to grab. "Care to join me… Girlfriend…"

"Keep calling me carrots. It sound better." She said while taking his paw in her own.

"Does that mean I get to call you cute?"

"Once a month in private."

"Yes!"

They made their way back to the living room, holding paws and smiling at eachother…

This was the best christmas ever!

* * *

"Ni-ick! Wake up!"

Nick swatted at the paw shaking him.

"Just five more minutes."

"You already had your five minutes. Come on Nick get up, it's our 3 years anniversary."

"Also more commonly called christmas carrots." Nick said while trying to burry his head in his pillow.

"Yes, but we've also been dating for 3 years now so double reason to get up. Now come on or I'll just force you out of bed, you know I can."

Nick laid still as if he hadn't heard her. He waited for her to get close so she could force him out of bed before he suddenly turned around and jumped on her. He pinned her to the bed they shared while he stood above her.

"Well well, look at what I've found. Breakfast in bed. If that isn't a good way to start the day then I don't know what is."

"Breakfast in bed you say hmm? And here I thought you would still be tired from last night's dessert."

"To tell the truth, I kind of am. But how can I resist such a delicious looking bunny?"

Judy giggled and leaned up to plant a kiss on his lips. He welcomed her and put a paw to her cheek as the other found it's way to her back.

"Maybe latter." Said Judy after she broke the kiss. "But right now there's a couple presents under the tree with your name on them."

"Really? I thought you said last night that I had been a bad fox."

Judy gave him a playful punch and a roll of the eyes while he just kept smirking.

"Fine but I have a special present for you too."

"Oh yeah? What is it?"

"Well I can't just tell you that now can I? Just wait here and I'll go fetch it."

Nick jumped out of bed and went to the closet where he had hidden his gift. He looked behind him to make sure she wasn't peeking and then plunged his paw into the pocket of his jacket. He took out the small jewelry box and opened it.

He hoped she would like the ring…

"Are you coming?" Came her voice.

Nick quickly shut the box closed and shoved it in his pocket.

"Yeah yeah I'm coming."

This was lining up to be the best christmas ever…

 **And… Scene!**

 **So that's it guys the stories over. Let me know what you thinked, I always love reading you guys' comments. Now that this is done with I can finally go back to my other story. If you don't know about it, come and check it out. It's called Bunny and Wilde and it's way longer than this one. I left it off at a pretty juicy moment and now that I took a break from it, I am full of ideas to continue. If you guys liked the mystery in this one, do check it out Because it's full of questions and plot twist and stuff you're bound to like it.**

 **Anyways that's that. See you over there hopefully.**


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